Empty Pages
by Cyan Azzura Ri
Summary: Takes place after the anime series, but not after the OVAs. Because of a new threat, Miaka, Yui, and Taka are pulled back into the Universe of the Four gods, along with two girls from a completely different world. Not from Earth, and not from the UotFG.
1. A New Threat

Taka Sukunami, also known as Tamahome, sat in his living room, waiting for his wife, Miaka, to get back from her trip to the library with Yui - they had gone there to get a book or magazine or something along those lines, that had to do with preparing weddings, because Tetsuya and Yui were engaged. When the shocked Miaka, Keisuke, and Taka asked why Tetsuya had proposed to Yui when she was still only sixteen, his only reply was, "Hey, if Taka here can marry Miaka-chan, when she is only fifteen, why don't I propose to the one I love when she's sixteen?" The others had to agree.

Anyway, back to Taka, who was sitting on the couch, in the living room, watching the TV, in a bored manner. He wished his spouse would get home soon, he hadn't seen her all day, except that morning. He yawned largely, which trailed off into a sighed of boredom, and he slumped down farther into the fluffy sofa.

That was when he heard the door's lock click, before hearing the door slam open, and several excited exclamations from two voices, both of which he recognized. He grinned widely, jumped to his feet, and rushed to the hall, to see Miaka and Yui conversing enthusiastically between themselves, and at first, Taka didn't notice Miaka holding a familiar object in her arms.

"Mia-chan! You're finally home!" he dashed forward, and embraced her, picking her up slightly off the ground, to which she giggled loudly.

"Taka! Taka-anata! Put me down! Put me down this instant, Taka-kun!" she laughed, squirming in his tight grip, just as happy to see him as he was to see her, but was eager to show him her find. As soon as he put her down, she kissed him, with a grin. "Thank you for putting me down; I have something to show you!" she squealed excitedly, grabbing one of his wrists, and began pulling him towards the living room. He looked at her with a confused expression on his face as he stumbled along behind her, before turning his head back to look at Yui, who was following them, with a smile on her face. At his expression, she laughed slightly, and nodded, as if to say, 'just keep following her, Taka', so, he turned his head back forward.

As soon as they were in the living room, Miaka dragged Taka to the coffee table in front of the couch, and forced him to sit down, before she dropped to her knees, and placed the object she was holding down on the table. Yui came up, and sat down on the sofa next to Taka, staring at the book that Miaka had set down. Taka stared at Miaka in confusion for a moment, trying to figure out what she was so excited about, before looking back down at the book, and realizing _what_ book it _was_.

When he did, his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "_WHAT?_ The Universe of the Four gods! How did you get that! Wasn't it in the section of the library that you can't check books out from?" he threw questions right and left, leaning farther down, to get a better look at the book that he had lived in most of his life.

Miaka grinned, rubbing her hands over the cover, staring at her husband; she had expected that reaction out of him. In fact, she had anticipated it; if he hadn't reacted that way, she swore she would have fainted. "Well... you see, it's weird; it's like, it's supposed to be with us no matter what, or something, because they were having a rotten old book sale. Well... actually, not necessarily a rotten old book sale, but they were selling the older books that they deemed useless. Actually, most of the books they were selling _were_ useless, but this one wasn't, of course. Anyway, when Yui and I decided to look through the books, just for fun, on the top of the first pile we looked at, was this one! And since it was for sale, I figured I would buy it; even though it holds some painful memories," at that, she glanced at Yui for a moment, to see that she was looking down at her feet, then she looked back to Taka, "It's still the reason we met, and two of our friends are still in it. Who knows, there was still some room left in the book, maybe if we read past the part we already know, it'll have more concerning Tasuki and Chichiri?"

Taka blinked for a moment, before looking back up at his wife, with a slight grin on his face. "Wow. It does sound like it's really meant to be with you." he stated, before looking back down at the book, and making an impatient movement with his hands. "What are you waiting for? Open it close to the end, so we can see what's happened to Tasuki and Chichiri!"

Miaka laughed at his urgency, and nodded her head, opening the book close to the back. She tried to read a line of it, then remembered that she couldn't read it, and sweatdropped. "Uh... Taka? Um... I can't... exactly... read it." she stuttered, laughing nervously, as she handed it to her anata, who rolled his eyes humorously.

Taka took the book, and laid it against the table, leaning over it. He opened it up to a page somewhere near the end, read a line of it, and found that he remembered that happening, so flipped a few pages, and read another line. The line he read that time was basically one of the last lines, so he read it a bit longer, until he reached the end of what he remembered - and when he did, he saw that it did, indeed, have more. "It does have more!" he exclaimed, and scanned ahead a little ways; but when he did, his eyes widened slightly, and he leaned back from it. "But... but it looks like it doesn't go very far."

Miaka's eyes nearly popped out of her head, and she straightened up, grabbing Taka's arm, and shaking him. "What do you mean, it doesn't go very far! Does that mean Tasuki and Chichiri are... are...?" she couldn't even allowed herself to finish her question, or else she knew she would burst into tears.

Taka looked at her in sympathy, before looking back to the book, then back to Miaka. "Should I go ahead and read it, anyway?" he glanced from Miaka, to the book, to Yui, then back to Miaka, who, despite looking dismayed about the shortness of it, nodded her acknowledgment, and he heard Yui murmer a 'yes'. So, he sighed, and looked back at the book, to read what had happened to his fellow warriors. _"Now with the Priestesses of Suzaku and Seiryu back in their own world, along with the Suzaku warrior, Tamahome, the two remaining warriors, Tasuki and Chichiri, found themselves without a reason to stay together in their travels, and went their separate ways. Tasuki headed back to his group of bandits on mount Reikaku, and Chichiri resumed traveling solitarily._

_"Little did the remaining warriors know, a new threat was building."_ as soon as that sentence left his lips, the three jerked backwards slightly, their faces aghast. Miaka looked at her blue-green haired husband, with a look that had a very obvious meaning - 'how can this be? I thought it was all over! This can't be happening!'. Taka shook his head, his face still expressing the shock he was feeling at the fact that there was more trouble in the Universe of the Four gods. He then continued. _"This new threat was not of their world, but of a world not completely unlike the Priestesses' world. No one knew of it for many months - not even the creator, Taiitsukun, nor the beast gods.__The menace knew well how to hide it's identity, until it executed it's first strike. But only those who were murdered at the hand of the menace knew of the coming threat; the new enemy left no witnesses._

_As the disappearances became greater in number, questions were being raised, and soon, the threat was realized by Taiitsukun, and the creator surmised that it was not of their world, after consulting her mirrors about this new peril. And she knew, that to defeat a enemy that was not of their world, they would need assistance, from those that were not of their world." _Taka stopped again, and looked back and forth between Miaka and Yui. "That's it." he stated, his voice coated with worry.

Miaka, unlike her moderately calm husband, went into hysterics; she grabbed at her hair, tears falling from her eyes, as she tried her hardest not to sob out loud, but instead, breathed heavily. "Tha... that's it!" her voice was strained, and cracking, as she finally was able to squeak out a reply to what Taka had read. "That... it can't be finished at just that! There has to be more! All that happens after Taiitsukun finds out about the enemy, is she realizes that they need help from _another world!_" she was nearly hyperventilating at that point, tears still cascading down her now pale features, her arms up, and her hands gripping her hair, nearly pulling it out of her head.

Yui got up off the couch, and, before Taka could, rushed to her best friend, embracing her, to comfort her. "Miaka, calm down, getting so hysterical won't help anyone. I'm sure that the reason it stops there, is because the other worlders haven't been summoned there yet, and nothing has happened since Taiitsukun found out." Yui comforted, and soon felt her friend's shaking calm enough, that it relieved the blonde. She pulled back from the brunette, and looked into her friend's less dismayed than before face.

Miaka sighed shakily, and nodded her head, letting her arms relax, and fall to her sides. "Yeah... yeah, you're probably right, Yui... I guess it's an even better thing that I bought it, then..." she smiled slightly, which really relieved her friend, because she was really calming down. Suddenly a thought struck Miaka, and she furrowed her eyebrows. "Hm... I wonder. The book said something about it being a different world that the threat was from, but not our's; but it said that it was simi-"

Before she could finished her sentence, Taka cut her off with a sharp exclamation, "What the hell!" which attracted the attention of the two ladies, and when they turned to look to see what was wrong, they immediately knew what was wrong. The book was emitting a familiar red glow, that was expanding towards them too quickly for them to get away from. The girls both gasped, as the light consumed them; they soon found themselves falling, rapidly. They hugged each other tightly, clenching their eyes closed.

After a while of falling, they soon found themselves slowing down slightly, and shortly after that, they fell onto a hard floor. Neither of the girls much liked their landing, both finding it pretty painful. After a few minutes, they heard another thud, right beside them, and a muffled curse. Evidently Taka didn't much like his landing either.

After a few minutes lying there, trying to lessen the pain of their landing, the three let their eyes flutter open... but as soon as they did, they all let out a collective 'eek!', and their eyes nearly bugged out of their heads, for standing above them, staring at them, was Taiitsukun, with her trademark ugliness, intensified by her scowl. Taka was the first to recover his terrified shock, and jumped to his feet, pointing at the old woman. "Are you trying to kill us, you old hag!" he exclaimed.

Taiitsukun glared at the Suzaku warrior, very obvious anger planted on her face. "Shut up, Tamahome, before I send you back to the other world to just read what happens to your wife!" she growled at him, causing him to back off immediately, fear as evident in his expression as the anger in Taiitsukun's.

The girls stood up shortly after the irritated threat, realizing that they were once more in the book, and on mount Taikyoku. Miaka pulled away from Yui, and stepped towards Taiitsukun, fear on her face. "Why did you pull us back into the book? Is it because of the new threat, the one from a different world than this one, or ours?" she motioned to herself and Yui - not Tamahome, because of the fact that he was originally from the book.

Taiitsukun turned her attention to Miaka, and nodded her head in reply. "You have it right, Priestess. I knew we would need your - meaning all three of you - help. You and the Priestess of Seiryu's help, because you are the Priestesses, and his," she motioned to Tamahome, "help, because he... well, he's a Suzaku warrior, and we need as many warriors as possible. Otherwise, I would have just summoned you two, and not bothered with him." she stated, irritably, obviously still quite vexed at the stormy-lavender eyed boy.

Miaka looked at her, in slight confusion, glancing quickly at her husband, then at Yui, and then back to the creator. "But... why do you need Yui and I? We've already played our parts, we can't be here to be the Priestesses again. That's already all over. And plus, we are _not_, for whatever reason, going to become enemies again. Right, Yui?" she glanced back at her friend, who nodded vigorously in reply. "See?" she turned back to face Taiitsukun, who was shaking her head.

"No, no, no, I did not summon you hear to make you become the Priestesses all over again, I summoned you to help in bringing the other worlders here. You see, their world has so much magic in it, that when I summon them, I might end up summoning the wrong people, because from what I can tell, everyone there has some amount of magic in them, even if they never find it. So, my dilemma is, I need the most powerful ones, that are on the good side, and that are somehow related to this new enemy. I know already who I speak of, but I still need the help of you two." she then motioned for them to follow her into her main room, to which they complied.

Once they were in the room, their eyes landed on two familiar people, and Miaka squealed happily upon laying eyes on them. She sped into the room, and jumped onto her two other remaining warriors, Chichiri and Tasuki, who hadn't noticed them come in, so were very taken aback at the sudden tackle.

"Miaka, it's good to see you, you know!" Chichiri exclaimed, after recovering from the shock of having a hyper sixteen year old tackle himself and Tasuki in a bear hug.

Tasuki nodded, a grin on his face, as he hugged her back. "Yeah, it's good ta see ya', Mi-chan! How've ya' been?" he inquired.

Miaka beamed at the two, pulling away slightly, letting her arms fall to her sides. "I've been just fine! What about you two? Besides this new threat, that is." she said, cheerful, although the last sentence lost of a bit of the cheer.

Tasuki grinned his trademark fanged grin, and shrugged a bit. "Well, I've been just fine; except, Kouji found a _girl_ that is now staying with us bandits. She's a pain in the ass, I don' see what Kouji sees in 'er! Always whinin', sayin' the place is too _dirty_, or too _smelly,_ or too... well, whatever, she's always findin' _somethin'_ to gripe about." he complained, but he still had an obvious twinkle of humor in his eyes. Miaka had to giggle at his views on his best friend's new girlfriend. _Forever the 'I hate girls' thing, huh, Tasuki?_ She thought with another giggle.

"Well, now that this happy reunion is over, _how about we get to saving this world_? If we wait too long, it might be too late! Priestesses, follow me." Taiitsukun's irate voice broke into the short conversation, as she headed out a door directly across from the door which they had come in from. Miaka and Yui looked at each other a moment, then shrugged, and followed the old woman into the room.

The three Suzaku warriors tried to follow, but as soon as they put one foot inside the door, Taiitsukun shouted, "_I ONLY ASKED FOR THE PRIESTESSES, NOT THE WARRIORS!_" and the door slammed shut, knocking the three onto their backs. Tasuki and Tamahome's automatic reactions were to jumped up and begin trying to break the door down, shouting for 'the old hag' to open the door.

Chichiri sweatdropped at their antics, sat up, and shook his head. "Uh, Tamahome, Tasuki? I think that if you continue what you are doing, you know, Taiitsukun might get kinda mad, you know." he stated, standing up, and trying to pull the younger two away from the door. "Come on, you know! Let's go... uh... catch up, you know!"

Inside the other room, which was Taiitsukun's mirror room, Taiitsukun was explaining to the two sixteen year olds exactly what they were supposed to do to help her. "Now, Yui, you sit there, on that navy blue cushion, while Miaka, you sit on that crimson red one. I will stand in the middle here, and the mirror shall show us who we are to summon." Yui sat on the cushion specified, as did Miaka, and Taiitsukun stood in the middle, staring up at the largest mirror in the room. "Mirror, show whom we need to summon from the other world to defeat this new threat!"

As soon as the command was uttered, a picture began to blur into focus on the mirror. Once it was no longer blurry, they were able to see what looked like a town in the middle of a wasteland. It then began acting as if it was on fast forward, zooming into the town, where people were walking by very quickly (still on fast forward, you know :P), and it continued that way, until it began slowing down, and focused solely on two girls. One appeared to be about six foot exactly, while the other seemed to be 5'4"; the taller one looked to be just a bit older than the shorter one, and they looked to be best friends.

Taiitsukun nodded her head at the mirror, and began to specify what the two girls were supposed to do, "Now, both of you need to focus on just those two in your heads, while I concentrate on pulling them here. Ready? Now!" Yui and Miaka stared at the mirror, focusing hard on the two in the mirror, while Taiitsukun had closed her eyes, and was concentrating on pulling them into the Universe of the Four gods. On the mirror, a light engulfed the two girls, to which they both jumped in surprise, and were obviously questioning what was going on. After a few minutes, the picture on the mirror changed, and it was showing the two girls falling through what looked like space.

After a few minutes, the picture on the mirror completely faded, and two loud thumps were heard; followed by a loud vulgarity, followed by several more. Taiitsukun, Yui, and Miaka all turned towards where the cursing had come from, to find the two girls lying on the ground, both with slightly pained looks on their faces.

Taiitsukun floated over to where the girls where, while Yui and Miaka stood up, and walked over there. They looked down at the girls, wondering if they were conscious - but, they must have been, because of the string of profanities that were muttered earlier. The shorter girl twitched slightly, and her eyes slowly fluttered open. When her eyes were open, the first thing they landed on was Taiitsukun's scowling face. Her eyes flew open, and she squeaked. "EEK! I thought you were dead!" she cried, jumping up, and backing away.

At the younger girl's exclamation, the older girl grumbled a bit, and her eyes opened up as well. "Serap, what's your pro... what the hell is that?" she inquired, her voice nothing more than a little shocked, as she sat up, staring at Taiitsukun. She stared at the 'that' for a few more minutes, before snorting. "Halloween must have come early this year - if you're going for the ugliest costume at the party, I think you've won, whoever you are." she stated sarcastically.

Taiitsukun's scowl grew deeper, and she contemplated sending the older girl back and getting someone else. When she looked up at the one that the older one called 'Serap', she saw the fear and shock on her face, and reconsidered that; she was now contemplating sending both girls back. "_No, I am not trying to win an ugliest costume award, you idiot! _How do I always manage to choose incompetent imbeciles?" she growled, very obviously irritated at how everyone that saw her commented on her not-so-great-looks.

The younger girl, 'Serap', squeaked something along the lines of 'It _IS_ great, great, great, great grandma Halle! EEK!', while the older girl's eyes narrowed, and her lip upturned in a snarl. "Who are you calling an _'incompetent idiot'_? Listen, you damn ugly hag, you don't know what you're talking about. If you call me stupid again, I swear, you will be very, very sorry you _ever_ insulted me." the girl snarled, standing up smoothly as she did so, her height looking quite menacing to Yui and Miaka - Taiitsukun, however, wasn't intimidated.

She just snorted slightly at the woman standing above all of them. "Oh really. Well, if you're really not ignorant, then you'll just have to prove it to me by doing as I say." she stated, her voice obviously not amused. The tall girl growled loudly, bringing her hands - that now had five inch long claws sticking out of the tips of her fingers - up, and then ran at Taiitsukun, threateningly holding her hands out in an attack. But before she could sink her extremely sharp claws into Taiitsukun, the old woman disappeared, and reappeared somewhere else. "Stop it, Miss Lorelei, before I am forced to turn your hair bright, very girly, _PINK_!" as soon as the word 'pink' left Taiitsukun's mouth, the girl stopped abruptly, her eyes widening, before narrowing to angry slits.

"Damnit! That's not fair; threatening to turn my hair p... pi... p... PINK, just so I don't kill you, is just plain _dirty!_" she grumbled irritably, not noticing the shocked, and kind of irritated, look the girl she called 'Serap' was giving her. Taiitsukun smirked at the woman, before floating back to her previous spot.

Serap evidently had finally gotten over her fear of Taiitsukun, for the moment, and had walked up beside her best friend. "Um... how did you know Destiny's name? Who are you? How did you know she hates pink? Where are we? This doesn't look like anywhere I've ever seen..." she threw questions left and right, glancing at Taiitsukun, Yui, and Miaka.

Taiitsukun looked from the girl that the younger one called 'Destiny', to Serap, with a slight frown on her face (what else is new?). "Slow down, girl! Now, to answer your questions. I know all about you two; I am Taiitsukun, the creator of the Universe of the Four gods; like I said, I know all about both of you; and you are in the Universe of the Four gods. I have summoned you two here, from your world, because it seems that a threat from your world has come here, and has been killing off innocents. So, to beat a threat from your world, I knew I would need fighters from your world; and according to my mirrors, they had to be you two." she stated, and the two girls blinked at her a moment, before looking to each other.

"We're... in... another world." Serap stuttered, to which Destiny nodded.

"Yeah, I heard that, Dorky-san." Destiny stated, reaching up, and scratching her head in confusion. "Huh... well that's interesting."

Serap looked at her in shock, her mouth hanging open. "_Interesting?_ That's all you can call it? Interesting? We're in _another world_, and all you can say is that it's interesting? Talk about an understatement! It's... well, I think a better word than 'interesting' would be impossible! There can't be any other worlds... that's... it's just... well, there is that one of your's, but that's not the same thing..."

Destiny stared at her somewhat panicky friend for a moment in amusement, before rolling her eyes, and thwacking Serap over the head - which resulted in the shorter girl falling to the floor with a large bump on her head. "Serap, shut up, you're giving yourself a headache."

Yui and Miaka (A/n: You thought I forgot them, didn't you?) were staring at the display in mild amusement, and confusion. They glanced at each other a moment, seeing if the other one knew more than they did, but when they saw that neither of them had a clue as to what was going on, they shrugged. Just as they turned back towards the two arguing girls, and Miaka was about to ask about them, when Taiitsukun broke into the fight.

"Enough! You can fight later, Miss Lorelei, Miss... Pottain. Right now, let's go join the three men, so we can go through introductions and all that, then get down to the important stuff." she stated, the four girls all noticing the pause between 'Miss' and 'Pottain', but only two of them knowing why there was a pause there. Taiitsukun turned, and left through the doors, that were previously closed and locked, and the four girls followed her.

* * *

Outside the doors, the guys were busy catching up on the events since the last time they had spoken. Evidently, nothing much had happened to any of them since they had last spoken, because they were all trying hard to think of something to talk about. Either that or they were all nervous about the summoning for the two other worlders.

They were all three staring at a different nothing, when the doors banged open, startling the three into nearly jumping out of their skins. Taiitsukun walked out of the door, with the normal scowl on her face, followed closely by Yui, then Miaka, and shortly after them came two attractive girls that they didn't recognize.

The first girl they saw was tall; that was the first thing they noticed about her. Next they noticed the rest of her; she had the blackest imaginable hair, in fact, it was blacker than any hair color they had seen before, and it was held back in a low plait. Her eyes were a starry lavender color, with silver rings around the outside of the irises. Her complection was tan, she was moderately thin, but slightly muscular, with a perfect hourglass figure. She wore on her upper half a black satin tube top, with a blood red choker around her neck, black leather fingerless gloves, but on her right hand under the fingerless glove was a long, black, satin glove. On her lower half she wore black leather jeans, with a chain belt hanging around her waist, and black, leather, zip-up, tall, high-heeled boots. She looked vicious and sarcastic, and had a irritated look upon her beautiful face.

The second was much, much shorter; she was only about three inches taller than Miaka, in fact. She had dark red hair that had surprising magenta (dark pink) tinges that came down about to the middle of her back, held in a loose ponytail, with long messy bangs that curled under, coming to her chin. Her eyes were a bright golden color, and were slightly large. She had an unhealthily pale complection, with light freckles across her nose, a small hourglass figure, and was incredibly thin. She wore a slightly too large for her very deep magenta t-shirt with a tie on the left bottom edge of it, baggy navy blue jeans with golden thread making a dove design on one of the pantlegs and a snowflake design on the other, a golden ribbon tied around her wrist, and black shoes with golden buckles. She had a mix between confusion, fear, and irritation on her pretty face.

All three guys had the same reaction upon setting eyes on the first girl; their eyes went wide, and they stared. Miaka, noticing this, scowled angrily, and stormed over to her husband, thwacking him very hard over the head. "_Taka, you are my husband! Don't look at her!_" she barked at him, hitting him a few more times for good measure.

No one acknowledged the strange interaction between Miaka and Tamahome; Tasuki and Chichiri were still staring in shock at the black haired girl, until Chichiri snapped out of it, and looked to the red headed girl, then to Taiitsukun with a questioning look on his face. Tasuki, however, stared for another minute, thinking. _Wow... she's tall... and really beauti... what th' hell! She's a girl! They're both girls! Stop starin' at 'em, they might get the wrong idea!_ Tasuki's brain snapped at him, and he frowned. "What the hell is wrong wit' you old hag! They're _girls!_ They're not good for nothin'!" he shouted, glaring at the ugly old woman.

The black-haired girl looked angrily towards Tasuki, "Well then, if we're 'not good for nothing,' as you put it, then obviously we are good for something. Oh, and if you don't catch my meaning, then obviously your brain is smaller than it appears..." she spat, making his jaw drop, and he looked at her in surprise. "Oh? And if you ever want to test my abilities and see if I am, indeed, the way you think I am, a wimpy good-for-nothing bitch, then, I would _gladly_ take you on."

He just plain gaped at the girl that, with her challenge, seemed to think she could beat him. He stopped gaping at her, his face switching from shock to amusement, and he laughed loudly, staring at her in disbelief. "I can' believe a _girl_ wants ta' fight me. Believe me, girl, ya' don' wanna fight me; ya'd come out burnt ta' a crisp, and cryin'."

The lavender eyed girl glared bloody, deadly daggers at the red-head, growling slightly - because of the growl, her upper lip pulled away from her teeth, and Tasuki could see that the girl had fangs similar to his own, but just a little longer, and blood red, which startled him. "Listen, _boy_, my name is not _girl_, and anyone who calls me that will regret it. I have a name, you asshole."

Tasuki raised an eyebrow at her, trying his hardest not to laugh at the fact that the girl seemed to still think she could beat him. "Oh yeah? What _is _yer name, _girl_?" he asked, putting emphasis on 'girl', almost deliberately trying to get her angrier.

The red headed girl - along with every one else, actually - had been watching the somewhat entertaining display, and grinned slightly. "I bet they're gonna get into a physical fight here really, really soon." she stated, looking around to see if anyone disagreed. No one did.

The black haired girl with a name's - that she obviously liked people to call her instead of 'girl' - growl grew louder, and more threatening. "My name, imbecile, is much to long for any of you to remember, so I'll tell you the - somewhat - shortened version. Destiny Shantea Puella Venustas Sapientia Rhymeless-Lorelei. And you may call me _Destiny_. **_Not... girl!_**" she snapped, taking quick strides towards Tasuki, her hands balled up into fists. She reached him, pulled her right arm back, ready to slug him, but before she had the chance, suddenly the red headed girl ran in front of her, and Chichiri ran in front of Tasuki, who had stood up and was going to attack Destiny as well.

The amber eyed girl waved her arms around in front of her, shaking her head, with a scolding look on her face. "No, Des, don't kill him! At least not yet! Not until we find out details about why we're here! And if we end up teaming up with them, he might be a team mate or something, so please don't kill him right now!" she requested, and Destiny glared at her, before lowering her arm, and turning her back to the other girl.

"Fine. But, I swear, if he says _one more thing_ that pisses me off, I'm gonna have to kill him; I hope you understand." she stated, quite simply, and stalked off towards a chair, flopping down onto it, in a very painfully obvious bad mood. The red headed girl looked to Chichiri and Tasuki, to see if the other red head was calmed down, and, found, to her relief, that he was.

Taiitsukun, tired of this childish bickering, exclaimed, "Finally! Miss Lorelei, Miss Pottain, sit over there, Yui, Miaka, Tamahome, Tasuki, Chichiri, you sit across from them! Nyan-Nyans, making a dinner for these idiots for as soon as I am done explaining things." and everyone did as instructed, including the Nyan-Nyans, who ran off giggling in their high-pitched voices, not noticing Destiny shouting for them to shut up before she blasted them to pieces. Taiitsukun floated over close to the six, and scowled around at all of them. "Now, introductions are in order; we're not to have you wandering around this world completely clueless of who each other are."

"Seeing as I've already stated my full name, I need not say it again, except that my name is Destiny; maybe for a reminder for a certain male red haired imbecile." Destiny stated quite simply, crossing her arms, and glaring in the direction of Tasuki, who glared right back at her.

"Des." the red haired girl said in a threatening tone, crossed her arms, and glared at her black haired friend. Destiny didn't seem to acknowledge the threatening tone in her best friend's voice and just shrugged, rolling her eyes. "Well, uh, I might as well introduce myself, huh? I'm Serenia Arette Pottain, but please, do _not_ call me by my first name, call me Serap. Please."

The five who didn't already know who she was (in other words, not Taiitsukun) all nodded their heads, and proceeded to introduce themselves. "I'm Miaka Sukunami; it's nice to meet you, Serap, Destiny!" Miaka exclaimed, smiling at the two; Serap smiled back, nodding her head at the auburn haired girl, while Destiny just flinched at the happiness of the exclamation.

"I'm Taka - or Tamahome - Sukunami, Miaka's husband." Taka stated, as Miaka clutched his arm, smiling up at him. Destiny flinched once more, and Serap looked at them in slight confusion.

"You two look too young to get married, though." she stated, and Miaka and Taka shrugged, shaking their heads.

"So?" they retorted.

Serap raised an eyebrow slightly, then shook her head, and shrugged, looking to the next person to introduce themselves. "I'm Yui Hongo, Miaka's best friend." Yui said, smiling slightly.

"I'm Chichiri, ya' know." Chichiri said, his mask smiling at Serap and Destiny, and underneath it, he was smiling slightly as well, although no one could see it.

"And I'm Tasuki." Tasuki stated, turning his glare away from Destiny, finally figuring it out that it just wasn't going to work to burn a hole through her just by glaring.

* * *

A/n: Hello. It is I, the author of the fic. I hope you don't think this sucks too much, or that either Destiny or Serap are annoying. But I can't help if you do or not. I'm just writing this because it's fun to write on, and because my best friend (who created Destiny - I created Serap) will kill me if I don't. I really hope you like it, though! Oh, and, any flames that will be sent will be ignored. 

Disclaimer: Hey, guess what! I don't own Fushigi Yuugi! Huge surprise, huh! _((rolls eyes))_


	2. Kiss of Doom

"So, let me get this straight. You brought Yui, Miaka, and Taka back from Miaka and Yui's world, because you needed Yui and Miaka here to help you summon Serap and I, and because Taka needs to be here because he's a warrior that is really from this world but was in that world because he and Miaka are in love; and Serap and I need to be here to help you defeat this stupid enemy that you guys suddenly have? Why the hell do you need us to solve your problem for you? Oh, wait, you said it came from our world, didn't you? So I guess that means it's half our problem, too. Damnit, I was hoping it wasn't so we could leave..." Destiny grumbled, as they were eating dinner, after the long explanation about why they were there.

"Destiny, stop being so rude! We would need to help whether it was our problem or not; they brought us here, and if we just up and left, that would've been extremely self centered of us." Serap scolded, taking a small bite of some meat, before setting her chopsticks down.

Destiny glared at her best friend, with an eyebrow raised. "Sooo...?" she glanced around at the other occupants of the table, to see that only Taiitsukun and Chichiri were paying them any attention. Tasuki was eating, Miaka was _eating_, Taka was busy watching his wife eat even more than usual, as was Yui. Destiny turned her attention back to Serap, who was giving her a _look_ that indicated the fact that she didn't much like Destiny's selfishness. "Serap, we were in the middle of something back home, it's not like we can just get randomly pulled out of our home _world_ and into another when we're supposed to be doing something else that is very important!"

Serap gave Destiny a strange look, and then raised an eyebrow. "I don't really think going to a 6th cousin of mine we barely know's birthday party is _very important_. I didn't think you thought it was, either. Or are you just making up an excuse?" she inquired, teasing suspicion lacing her voice.

Destiny scowled, irritated at the magenta-red haired eighteen year old, and put her own chopsticks down. "No, that's not _what I was talking about_. Remember? The thing we had to get! The thing for the person that hired us. _Remember?_" she said, in an exasperated manner, looking like she was just about to hurt her friend.

"Hey, Serap, are you going to eat that? If you're not, can I have it? Please, please, please!" Miaka's excited voice sounded right next to Serap's head, causing her to screech, and jump, falling off the chair, onto the ground. Miaka, who had been standing right beside her, looked down at her with a confused expression. The red-head stared up at Miaka, then shook her head, standing up, and brushing herself off, almost embarrassedly. "Okay, thank you!" Miaka exclaimed, taking the rest of Serap's helping, which was only about half gone, and sitting down in the seat next to Serap's seat.

"Yeah, uh, you can have my food... I was done eating. I'm going to go get to bed. I mean, I need plenty of sleep for tomorrow, since we're heading early out to begin searching for that enemy, right? Need my rest. Goodnight everyone." she said, smiling at the others, before bowing, turning, and heading off towards the general direction of the rooms; or, at least, what the people that weren't paying much attention (Miaka, Yui, Tamahome, and Tasuki) thought was the direction of the rooms.

Chichiri looked in the direction she had left in, with a confused expression on his face underneath his mask. "Where is she going, ya' know? That is not the way to her room, ya' know. That's the way to the training grounds and the kitchen, why would she be going there, ya' know?" he inquired, and in reply, Destiny looked at him, trying to contain her irritation at his using 'ya' know' so much, making her right eye twitch. _How can they put up with that many 'ya' know's without killing him? _She thought, both her hands balling up into fists.

"I do _not_ know why she is going that way, Chichiri. All I know is that she is not planning on sleeping in the kitchen - or sleeping anywhere, for that matter, because I know her, and I know that she doesn't like to sleep, no matter the need for it." she ground out between her teeth, thinking over in her head why Serap would go towards the training grounds or the kitchen. Maybe she was going to practice fighting, because of the threat they would be facing soon. Or maybe she was going to the kitchen to get a snack? But, no, that couldn't be, because they had dessert right there on the table, and Serap never ate much. So, what could the reason be? Then it hit her, and she surged to her feet, a wrathful look on her face, looking like she was about to killing something - or, rather, someone. "SERAP! You better not be!"

With that, she turned on her heel, and stormed very quickly out of the room, in the direction Serap had left in. Chichiri glanced at the others, who's attention had finally been drawn away, and then he stood up, walking after them, soon followed by the other four (Taiitsukun had already left, shortly before Serap had left). They walked down the hall, until they came to the first room, the kitchen, where they heard Destiny's angry shouts coming out of. They peeked around the corner of the door, to see a strange sight. Destiny was standing there, with one hand on her hip, and the other holding a sake bottle, and Serap was standing near her, looking down at the floor guiltily.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Serap? I told you that as long as we were best friends, you'd have to stop this. But every once and a while, I catch you at it! Like now, for instance! You're way too obnoxious when drunk! And it's unhealthy, I don't want my best friend to just up and _die_ one day." Destiny scolded, holding the sake bottle far away from herself, as if it was some sort of wild animal with rabies.

Serap looked up from the floor, with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry, okay, Des? It's just been so long, and I thought that this was a good time... I mean, I'm so confused, being in a different world and all... I wanted to get that off my mind... just one sip, please Des?" she begged, looking at the sake bottle, then back to Destiny, who looked at her with an expression that said 'you think I'm an idiot, or what?', and she sighed, nodding her head. "I didn't figure you'd say yes. But why not just one single sip? A taste, or something."

Destiny growled, and shook her head, walking over to put the sake back where it came from. "Damn, Serap, you're an idiot. Don't you remember what happened last time you got an alcoholic drink? You got all depressed, had several drinks to numb the sadness, and then because you lost all sense, you walked out into a damn _blizzard_, nearly getting yourself killed! And this time, who knows, you might walk off this mountain we're on, and die. There's no chance I'm letting _that_ happen. ..._ Again._"

Serap sighed again, slowly walked out the door, and upon doing so, noticed the five people that had been watching the whole thing. Her whole face turned bright red, and she laughed nervously, before dashing away from them, in the real direction of the bedrooms. They watched her until she was out of sight, then turned to Destiny, who was glaring at the doorway. She snarled at them, and began walking in their direction. "What! Haven't you ever seen a girl who was addicted to alcoholic drinks get scolded by her best friend?"

"Actually... no, we haven't." Tasuki stated, quite plainly, staring at the place where she had put the sake away, but soon his line of vision was broken by the girl in question, making him back up slightly, startled. He looked into her face, to see her suspicious expression - she had obviously caught him staring where the sake was.

"What was all that about? And... did you say she'd gotten herself _killed_ before?" Tamahome asked the questions that were on everyone's minds, turning Destiny's attention away, before either she or Tasuki punched each other, as it looked they were about to. She walked away from Tasuki, and out of the kitchen, walking down the hallway. The others followed her, and they got halfway back to the dining room before she finally answered.

"Well, you see, before we met, she was a terrible drunk because of past problems. But then, one day I traveled to this town called Damzen, because someone had hired me to find something for them in that town, and headed to the bar because there was a huge ruckus coming from there - I was curious as to why. So, I headed there, to find that Serap was the cause of the ruckus - she was up on the bar counter, doing some type of strange dance, singing loudly into a hair brush. I found out a few days later that she was a fourth or fifth cousin, and that she could be handy for finding what I needed to find; so, I made her promise not to ever drink around me ever again. But every once and a while I find her at it again, but only when she's either depressed, or confused." Destiny explained, as they reached the dining room.

She was about to leave and go to her room, when Chichiri asked, "And what about what you said to her about dying again, ya' know?"

She stopped, turning her head slightly, placing her hands on her hips. "Oh, that. We have these fruit in our world that if you force feed someone after they die - but it has to be within an hour of the death - they come back. It's kinda like smelling salts, I suppose, except you eat them, they taste good, and you weren't just unconscious, but dead. She accidently killed herself once when she was drunk and we were climbing a mountain because there was something up there we had to get. Well, I'm gonna go make sure Serap really is asleep in bed, then head to bed myself. See ya'." she said, and proceeded to head out of the room, the others turning from her, to each other, with complete shock on their faces.

"Fruits that bring people back from the dead after an hour? What the hell? Shit, I wish we had those, then Nuriko, Chiriko, Mitsukake and Hotohori wouldn't have had to die!" Tasuki cursed, and the others, besides Yui, who hadn't known them very well, nodded their heads in agreement, a solemn silence coming over them.

Miaka forced a smile, wiping away the tears that had begun to form. "Come on, everyone. It's late, we should g-get to bed." she said shakily, turning around, and heading quickly in the direction of her and Tamahome's room. Soon, her husband followed her, bidding goodnight to the others; then, shortly after them, the other three said goodnight to each other, and headed to their bedrooms.

* * *

A shadowed figure holding several bottles of sake crept along the wall, and they would have not been all that noticeable, had their hair not been bright fiery orange-ish red. Tasuki crept along through the shadows, glancing around, hoping no one would notice his presence - not that they would, seeing as how everyone was probably in bed, sound asleep. He continued, until he came to a bedroom door, where he stopped, and knocked.

"... Hello? Hey, Serap, ya' awake?" he asked the door, and at getting no response, shrugged, and pulled the door open, busting into her room. Once he entered, he saw that Serap was, indeed, awake, but was sitting up on her bed, facing away from him, with some sort of contraption over her ears. "Hellooo? Hey! Are ya' asleep sittin' up, or what?" he whispered quite loudly at her, and walked over to, trying not to drop the sake bottles.

She just continued to sit there, her eyes closed, her head bobbing slightly to what seemed to be nothing. Tasuki waited for a few minutes, and soon got impatient. He set the bottles down on the floor next to the bed, and shook Serap's shoulders, until she, in an irritated manner, pulled the things off her head and stared at Tasuki in a mix between surprise and annoyance. "What is it? I was busy." she stated, quite plainly.

He frowned at her, backing slightly up, and crossed his arms. "Well, I was jus' seein' if ya' wanted ta' have a drink wit' me, but if ya're gonna be rude ta' me, maybe I'll jus' take it back." he said, and at the word 'drink', Serap's eyes lit up.

"Drink? As in... sake? An alcoholic drink? That type of drink?" she asked, getting up on her knees, and walking on them, closer to the other red head. Tasuki smirked, and nodded his head, but then turned away from her.

"I don' think I wanna drink wit' you now." he said, in a mock-angry voice. He heard a growl from behind him, then felt a punch to the back of his head. "Hey! Wha' was 'at for?" he snapped, grabbing the back of his head, and turning around to her with a scowl on his face, to meet a frowning Serap.

"Don't take the sake back; you already brought it here, I'm not letting you take it away. Can you please hand me a bottle of it?" she switched modes from pissed off, to nice and polite, and she did it so fast, Tasuki had to stared at her in confusion. _This is why I hate women... they're so damn confusing..._ he thought, as he handed Serap a bottle of the sake, while taking one for himself.

"You hate women? Does that mean you're gay?" he heard Serap ask, making him realize he must have said that out loud. But then, her second question registered in his head, and his face went bright red in a mix between anger, and embarrassment.

"What! No, I'm not fuckin' gay! Just 'cause I hate women doesn' mean I'm GAY!" he growled at her, quite loudly, and in response Serap just shushed him, with a shake of her head. He growled again, and took a large drink of the sake.

Serap also took a drink of it, and grinned largely afterwards. "Yum. Anyway. So, you're not gay, then? Then why do you say you hate women? Usually guys that hate women are gay, you know. So, what's your proof that you're not gay, hm?" she asked, taking another - rather large - sip of the sake.

Tasuki blushed slightly at the fact that she wanted proof, and he didn't know what kind of proof he could give her. "Uh... well, my proof, is... well, ya' see..."

"Ha, you got no proof, do you!" Serap laughed, jumping up to her feet, and pointing at him. She took another drink of the sake, and proceeded to circle him like a hawk. "I win, you lose. You're gay, and you have nooo proof that you're not."

Tasuki stood up, and glared at the girl circling him. "Stop that! I'm not gay!"

"Yeah you are! I bet you even like that Chichiri guy, huh? Haha, this is funny." she laughed, continuing to circle him, with a grin on her face.

"WHAT? YUCK! No! I'm NOT gay!" he shouted, seeming to forget there were people sleeping next door.

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Uh huh! Yup!"

"Shut up! I'm not gay!"

"Nope, you're not, and the sky is made of moldy cheese!"

"NO-... what?" he stopped, and stared at her strangely.

She just continued laughing, and patted his head a couple times. "It's okay to be in denial." she said, and then took one more drink of the sake.

Tasuki growled once more, "Wha' do I have ta' do ta' prove I'm not gay?"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, and in stormed Destiny, a wrathful expression on her face. "WOULD YOU TWO PLEASE SHUT - SERAP! Are you holding sake! You _better_ not be _drinking!_" she growled, very loudly, and began to storm towards the female red head, who was staring at her best friend with a hint of fear on her face.

"Uh... h-hi, Des, whatcha doing here? Want some sake?" Serap offered, her voice much softer than it had been when she was teasing Tasuki, as she lifted up an unopened bottle of sake.

"No, I _don't_ want some stupid alcoholic drink. What I want is for you to get it through your amazingly thick head that you need to stop drinking this stuff!" the taller girl snapped, reaching forward and snatching the drink away from her friend's hand. Just then, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and she turned around, to see Tasuki standing there. "What is it, idiot? Are you the reason Ser-_mff!_" she was cut off as Tasuki pulled her down and captured her lips.

Serap stared in shock, her eyes extremely wide. "Oh. I guess you're not gay, then, Tasuki." she stated, as she continued to stare, trying to keep herself from laughing.

Destiny, however, found this much less than amusing. Her eyes wide in anger, she growled, pulled back her right fist, and sent it flying as hard as she could against Tasuki's head, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. "_YOU JERK!_" she exclaimed, her voice loud enough to wake all of Konan.

But instead of all Konan, it just woke all the residents of Mt. Taikyoku, and soon Chichiri, Tamahome, Miaka, and Yui (Taiitsukun didn't bother) ran into the room, wondering what was wrong. They found quite a strange scene before them. Destiny, with a very, very pissed off expression on her face, standing over a very in pain Tasuki, with a highly amused Serap standing next to the bed.

"You teach him, Des! That's what he gets for kissing you!" Serap exclaimed, punching a fist into the air, a wide grin on her face. "Oh, and congratulations, Tasuki, you're not gay." she added as an afterthought.

The four that had burst into the room all gasped, and stared at the fiery haired bandit in shock. "Tasuki forcefully kissed a girl?" Tamahome asked, voicing the thought that the other three were thinking. He grinned, and laughed, "Ha, I guess, like Serap said, you're not gay, then. And I always thought you were."

Tasuki sat up slowly, holding his aching head, and glared in the direction of Tamahome. "Jeez, why does every'ne thin' I'm gay...?" he grumbled to himself, turning his glare up at Destiny. "Why'd ya' punch me so damn hard! All I did was kiss ya'!"

The girl standing above him growled angrily, and kicked his side, making him crying out. "You idiot! _Idiot!_ You are as stupid as they come! Do you realize how hard it is to not kill you right now! _No one kisses me! _Not even to prove they're not gay! You should have just kissed Serap or something! Not me! That's it, I can't cooperate with this imbecile, I'm going back to our world! Come on, Serap, let's go find that Taiitsukun or whatever and get her to send us back! I'm not staying with this idiot another minute!"

Serap stared at her strangely, then glanced down at Tasuki, then frowned, and walked up to her friend, her arms crossed. "No." she stated, quite plainly.

Destiny raised an eyebrow, and snorted at her friend. "'No'? What the hell is that supposed to mean? We're going back to our world before I kill His Imbecilicness." she snapped, and Serap just shook her head in response. "Serap! We're going back to our world, NOW! No more of this '_no_' business!" she said, saying the 'no' in a strange mocking voice.

Serap frowned deeper, and shook her head, once more. "Destiny! We can not leave, you know that! I already said this to you earlier. They summoned us here to _help_, not bash one of their warriors' heads in, and then leave. You can leave if you want, but I'm staying." she stated, backing up, and sitting down on her bed.

Destiny growled, and clenched her hands into fists. "So what? They can take care of their own damn problems! If they can summon us, they can summon someone else to replace us! I'm not helping this idiot here, in one single way! That'd be like _thanking_ him for _kissing_ me!"

The four of the other five just stared at the exchange, while Tasuki crawled away from Destiny, hoping she wouldn't notice, grumbling about his hate for women. "No it wouldn't! Plus, Des, it can't have been _that_ bad." Serap continued, rolling her eyes at her raven haired best friend.

Destiny stared at her as if she just said that bees lived in water, and fish flew around stinging people. "Serap..." she started in a calm voice, completely opposite of her previous voice. "... it was the most disgusting, traumatic thing I have ever experienced! _Of course it was 'that bad'!_" she shouted, converting once more to the loud, angry tone.

Serap groaned, and slapped a hand to her forehead. "Destiny! What would you rather do? Leave this world, and probably all the other ones out there, to be destroyed, _just because_ Tasuki kissed you; or pretend he didn't kiss you, ignore him, and save all these worlds?" she asked, in an almost scolding tone.

The lavender eyed girl stared at her best friend, then put her hand to her mouth in thought. "Give me a minute to think that through..."

"Des!"

"Fine! Fine! I'll stay here, you happy?" she snapped, turning around and storming towards the door. The five standing at the door moved out of her way, as she walked out the door, slamming it hard behind her.

Serap grinned widely, at her friend's final decision. "Much thankies, Des!" she shouted, and listened for a reply. All she heard was a random 'BOOM' somewhere in the distance. The others began to run out the door, thinking they were being attacked, but Serap called, "Oh, don't bother, that was just Desi's reply to my 'thank you'." she smiled, then a completely out of the blue frown crossed her features, and she pointed towards the door. "It's time for bed! I'm tired, get out!"

As the five walked out, Tasuki made two mental notes to himself, _Okay, never kiss Destiny **'gain**. And never drink **with** Serap, 'gain._ _Those are the mos' confusin' girls I 'ave ever met._

* * *

A/n: Oi, no one! Congratulations to myself, no reviews. ((sarcasm)) Probably because the sucky summary and too-long first chapter, huh? This chapter's a bit too long, too, but still. I love the longness, it makes me and my friends happy. ((huggles my fic)) Anyway, this is the second chapter, to those of you who are reading this but _not reviewing._ I doubt you like it, though... ((fake-depressed-sigh)) That must be why you're not reviewing! Ha, I've caught onto your little scheme. You think that not reviewing will make me stop writing, huh? _Huh?_ ... right. Anyway. I'm continuing, even though no one's reviewing, because it's not like no one will _ever_ review... oh, sorry, I'm rambling now.

Disclaimer: No owningship here! Well, I do own Serap, and the enemy, but I don't own any of Fushigi Yuugi or Destiny, or some other characters that are gonna appear later. Oh, and I own Kouji's girlfriend, too.


	3. Of Claws and Kisses

Taiitsukun, Miaka, Tamahome, Yui, Tasuki, Chichiri, Destiny, and Serap all stood outside, the seven that were to leave all on horses - Miaka and Tamahome sharing a horse, of course - and Taiitsukun telling them, "Miaka, Yui, Destiny, Serap - keep these idiots in line."

Destiny smirked, glancing briefly at Tasuki, before looking back at the old woman, and punching a fist into her hand. "It would be my pleasure. If they do anything too stupid, I won't hesitate to teach them a lesson." she stated, once more glancing towards the red haired male, who was glaring at her.

"Whaddya _mean_, 'teach us a lesson'? You're jus' a girl!" Tasuki shouted at her, before bursting out laughing.

Serap stared at him with wide eyes. "Uh, Tasuki? I don't think that was... such a good... idea..." she said, finding that it was a bit futile, since Destiny had already charged towards him with an angry roar. _She was so angry she just jumped off her horse..._ Serap thought, with a shake of her head.

"'Just a girl'! Ha! That's what _you_ think!" she growled, and as she continued to charge at him, she brought her hands up, crossing them in front of her face. Then, to everyone, but Serap's, astonishment, her fingernails morphed into incredibly dangerous looking six inch long claws.

Tasuki's horse, at seeing this 'monster' heading straight for it, neighed in fright, and bucked it's rider off of it's back, before running as far away from the scary thing before it could get it. Tasuki cried out in surprise, not-so-silently cursing his horse for abandoning him. "_You damn horse!_" he called out, shaking a fist in the horse's direction, and then glancing back towards Destiny, who was now very close to him, and he could see that her eyes were bright red.

Before he could even stand up, Destiny reached him, swung her arm back, then plunged one of her claws into his chest. His eyes widened, before closing, and he went completely limp. "That shows you! I'm not 'just a girl'!" she muttered.

The others, besides Serap and Taiitsukun (who just scowled very deeply, as she did at everything), all gasped, and Miaka cried out, "Tasuki!" Destiny cringed at her high voice, and turned around, glaring at the others. "What?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow, at the shocked, angry looks on everyone but Serap's faces.

"You killed Tasuki! How could you?" Miaka cried, clutching her husband's back, with an angry look on her face.

"You're not on our side, are you! Of course you're not, if you were, how could you have killed one of your own teammates?" Taka exclaimed, just about ready to jump off his horse and challenge her. Before he could, though, Destiny sighed, rolled her eyes, and reached into a bag that she was carrying with her (A/n: That I forgot to mention...).

"Oh, please. I do that all the time. I've done it to Serap many times, just ask her. And she's my best friend." she stated, taking out a small fruit, that was about the color of Tasuki's hair, and kneeling next to the body of Tasuki. She stared at the fruit for a minute, before her eyes suddenly widened dramatically. "Oh shit." she cursed, and looked at Serap with a begging expression on her face. "Serap! You've gotta help me! I can't do it!"

Serap took a step back, seeming to know what she meant, and shook her head viciously, waving her hands in front of her face. "Oh, no, I don't think so, Des. You killed him, not me!" she stated, and Destiny made a noise that was a mix between a ferocious growl, and a whimper.

She then turned to Miaka, with a pleading look on her face. "Miaka! Miaka, he's your good friend, right? Could you please do it? Please? Please!" she begged.

Miaka looked at her in confusion, not knowing what the black haired girl was so distressed about. "Do what?" she asked, and Destiny stared at her for a moment, before turning to Taiitsukun.

"Taiitsukun! I don't _really_ think you're that ugly! I mean... uh... you're not ugly at all, really! Yeah... can you please do it!" she pleaded, but all she got as a response was the old woman raising an eyebrow at her. She growl/whimpered again, and turned back to the red headed guy on the ground. "Noo..."

"Des, you have to do it yourself! You killed him, and it's been fifteen minutes since you did, and if you continue this, he'll be permanently dead! Just do it already!" Serap scolded, crossing her arms and glaring at her best friend.

"_... oh fine..._" she growl/whimpered, and followed that with a depressed sigh. She slowly lifted the revive fruit, put it in her mouth, and chewed it a couple times. She then, with the revive fruit still in her mouth, took a deep breath, and quickly lowered her head to Tasuki's, placing her mouth to his, to transfer the fruit into his mouth.

After a few seconds, Tasuki's arms twitched, then slowly moved around Destiny's waist. Her eyes flew open, and she pulled back, slapping him across the face. "How dare you! You... perverted idiotic imbecile! I am using all my self control not to kill you again!" she shouted, standing up, and began to swipe angrily at her lips. "Stupid, idiotic, perverted, imbecilic, dumbass..." she continued to grumble under her breath.

Tasuki sat up, and stared at her in shock. "Tha'... that was YOU!" he exclaimed, a hand flying to his mouth. One of his eyes twitched, and he felt his lips. "Why were ya' _kissin'_ me? Just yes'erday ya' were yellin' at me for kissin' _you!_" he stated, to which she glared deadly daggers at him, and turned around, storming back to her horse.

Serap, feeling that it was safe, began to snicker, covering her mouth with her hand, so as to make sure her best friend wouldn't see her laughing at the scene. "Oh, Des! But you and Tasuki make such a _cute_ couple." she joked, to which she found herself off of her horse, on the ground, on her back. "Ouch."

Tamahome, Miaka, Chichiri, and Yui were currently staring at Destiny, with untrusting looks on their faces. "Just because you revived him, doesn't necessarily mean that you're on our side." Yui stated, and the other three nodded their agreement.

The black haired girl turned her head to them, with a look of disbelief. "What? Even though I went through with that... that... _disgusting_ torture, you _still_ don't believe I'm on your side? What do I have to do to make you believe I am not going to just go on a random killing spree, and murder all of you?" she asked, and in response, they all stared at her - her choice of words made them think that she had possibly been plotting that since they first met. "Oh fine! Maybe if I kill _myself_, then you'll believe me." she said in exasperation, jumping off her horse once more.

Serap stood up from the ground, as Destiny walked over to her, and handed her bag over to her. "Here. For after I kill myself." she stated. Serap took the bag from her, and she walked back over to four that were still untrusting of her. She raised her right arm, pointing her index finger's claw at her heart, and, after taking a deep breath, closed her eyes, plunging the claw into her chest. "_Ah!_" she cried out, before falling to the ground, limply. Serap quickly ran over in front of her, making sure no one could see the wound, for reasons the others knew not.

Tasuki walked over, staring down at Destiny with a shocked look on his face. "She... she actually did that, jus' ta' prove that she's... on our side?" he asked, glancing at Serap, who was nodding her head.

"So... well, I really don't feel like kissing another girl, even though she's my best friend... who wants to do the honors?" she asked, looking up, and grinning at Tasuki. He glared at her, and shook his head vigorously. "Aw, come on! You guys have already kissed _twice_... what's another time gonna do? Kill you?"

"Pro'bly! And if th' kiss didn', then she would." he retorted, crossing his arms and glaring down at the other red head.

Before Serap could reply, a voice interrupted her. "Damn... that hurt..." Destiny's voice groaned, making the others turn to look at her in shock. She then began to cough, coughing up blood as she did so. "Ugh... damnit, Serap... heal me... already...!" she managed, weakly, through her coughs.

Serap muttered something inaudible under her breath, and moved aside. She began to search through the bag Destiny handed her earlier, as Tasuki stared at the quickly forming puddle of crimson blood around her. Serap pulled a small blue berry from within the bag, and stuffed it in her best friend's mouth. Soon, the blood flow stopped, and the wound on her chest closed up.

Tasuki stared in shock at the, now closed, wound that had previously been on her chest. He then realized that there was a hole where she had stabbed herself, blushed slightly, and looked away, noticing a silver liquid on one of her claws. "Whazzat on your claw?" he asked.

Destiny looked down at the claw in question, and hesitated, "U-um... That's... Actually, I have no idea what that is..." She stuttered as she spoke.

"Uh... we're really sorry for not believing you when you said you weren't a traitor. I mean, it is slightly hard to believe you're on our side, when you killed one of our teammates on purpose..." Miaka said, smiling slightly in apology at the black haired girl.

"Hey, I didn't do it _on purpose_. He provoked me, and I have a _very_ bad temper." she stated, standing up and walking back to her horse, as if nothing had happened, with her arms crossed over her chest, trying to hide the hole in her shirt. "Now let's get going before we have to stay here _again_ tonight. We've been here for way too long just standing here." she said, grabbing a large black cloak from the inside of the bag that she had taken back from Serap, and wrapping in around herself, pulling the hood up over her head, concealing everything about her, except her height.

The seven mounted their horses - Tasuki did only after looking for his horse for several minutes - and proceeded to ride down Mt. Taikyoku. Taiitsukun watched them, with a regretful expression on her face. "I shouldn't have left the fate of the world in the hands of such imbeciles..." she sighed, before heading back inside.

* * *

A/n: Doom, I guess. I'm doomed - I must be, since no one is reviewing this... ((depressed-ish-fake-sigh)) Everyone's so mean. Well, actually, I don't blame you, because this fic isn't very good compared to a lot of others, so, naturally, there wouldn't be hardly any reviews (bad or good). Well, this chapter isn't as long, or as good, as the other two, but oh well. Well, I better go now, before I begin begging you to review. See ya'. 

Disclaimer: I don't own what I don't own - in other words, I don't own Fushigi Yuugi, or Destiny, or some other characters that appear later.


	4. Conversations, Inns, and Nightmares

"... are we there yet?"

"No!"

"How do you know, do you even know where _there_ is?"

"No, I don't, but I know it's not here! Now shut up before I make you shut up!"

"... Well, I'm _bored_, can you blame me for talking!"

"We're all bored, Tasuki, but asking if we're there yet _won't_ make us get there sooner, y'know..."

"Yeah, and if you ask that question _one more time_ you're dead and I won't revive you this time! Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah..."

That was the way conversation had been ever since the group of seven had left Mount Taikyoku, and everyone was beginning to get more than a little irritated at Tasuki. Even just after a half hour, he had begun pestering them about when they would get there, because it was nearing time for the sun to set completely.

"Are we almost to a town? I'm tired and hungry..." Tasuki moaned, and Miaka soon joined him in his complaining.

"I'm hungry, too! _Are_ we almost to a town?" Miaka asked, looking to Chichiri, who, if anyone, would know if they were coming close to a town. He glanced at her, then looked back forward, and slightly nodded his head, indicating that there was indeed a town coming up soon.

"There is a town in about a mile or two, and we should be there in about a half hour if continue going the speed we're currently going, y'know." he said, and heard a collective moan from several of his traveling companions.

"But that means we have to listen to Tasuki and Miaka's complaining for another half an hour!" Yui groaned, and received a whop to her head, courtesy of her best friend. "Hey!" she cried, jokingly, as Miaka stuck her tongue out at her.

"You're so mean, Yui! I'm not complaining that much!" Miaka said, turning away from her friend, with her arms crossed over her chest, and leaning back against her husband. "Taka, Yui's accusing me of whining too much!"

Taka laughed, and took one hand away from the reins of his horse, to ruffle his wife's hair. "I'm sorry to say it, Miaka, but you are whining a bit. But no where near as much as Tasuki." he said, and waited for a response. He didn't have to wait long, because shortly, a boot flew at him, hitting him in the head.

"Shut up!" Tasuki's annoyed tone came from somewhere ahead, but neither Taka nor Miaka could see where he was, for the sun had set sometime before.

After that, everyone went silent for several minutes, most of them enjoying the peace and quiet. But, as most things do, that came to an end, and sooner than anyone would have liked. "I'm still bored." Tasuki's, still irritated, voice shattered the silence like a rock through a window, and several of his companions groaned.

"Will having a conversation make you happy, so you stop bugging us?" Destiny snapped at him, her hands tightening around the reins of her horse, as she glared at the flame-haired bandit. He looked at her, and nodded his head, with a grin on his face. "Fine then! Have a conversation with Chichiri or someone, I'm sure they'd be _happy_ to have a conversation with _you_." she advised with a growl.

"Oh, but _why_ can' I 'ave a conversation wit' _you_, Des'iny? _'Nnoyed_ at me, or somethin'?" he asked, with a sarcastic grin, and urged his horse to go faster, before Destiny could swipe at him with her fist. He slowed the horse down as he came to Serap's horse, and she glanced at him, wondering why he would want to speak with her. "Oi, Serap. Yer bes' friend said I should talk wit' someone to cure my bored'm. So, wanna talk?"

She stared at him in confusion for a moment, before nodding slowly. "Uh... sure." she said, with a smile. "What do you want to talk about?"

"What I wanna talk 'bout is _why_ tha' bes' friend of your's is so damn irritatin'! From the very firs' moment we spoke, she's hated me! What did I ever do ta' make 'er hate me so much?" he growled, trying his hardest not to beat his fist against his horse, knowing that it wasn't the horse's fault Destiny hated him.

"Er..." Serap sweatdropped at the bandit's complete obliviousness. "... it might have something to do with the fact that you insulted us the moment you saw us..." she stated, quite plainly. Then she smiled again, and laughed. "Or it might be the fact that she hates guys."

Tasuki snapped out of his mental cursing session, and turned his head to Serap, a slightly surprised expression passing across his face. "Huh?" he asked, and she looked back forward, laughing slightly again.

"Yeah, you heard right. She hates guys, just like you hate girls. Probably because most guys in our world are nasty perverts and are always trying to do stuff to her. They never have, though, because they always get the same reaction from her as you did when you tried to prove to me you weren't gay (sometimes worse). But, I don't really know if that is the reason or not, because she hated guys long before I met her. So, sorry, Tasuki, but I don't think either of you will ever get along, since you both hate the opposite gender of yourself. Frankly, I'm surprised you're talking with me, since you claim to hate girls." she said, and looked at Tasuki with an eyebrow raised, to which he just shrugged.

"'Cause ya' like sake." he stated, and she furrowed both her eyebrows, before rolling her eyes, and turning her head forward once more, thinking that the conversation was over. "Well, maybe not jus' that. I mean, ya' are not like mos' girls." he said, and Serap turned her head once more to him, her eyebrow raised once more.

"Oh, how nice of you." she remarked, sarcastically.

"Tha's not what I meant! I meant, ya're not all giggly and annoyin' - well, ya' were yesterday night, but that was 'cause ya' were drunk... right?" he asked, and she nodded, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"Uh, yeah, I get like that when I'm drunk... or happy, as the case may be, and yesterday, I was on the verge of getting drunk, and was happy because I was drinking, and because I thought I was right about something." she said, and laughed, reaching her hand around to scratch the back of her head. "Which, as it turned out I wasn't! Heheh... oh, did I apologize about accusing you of being gay? If not, I'm sorry about that."

Tasuki shook his head, and shrugged. "Meh, i's alright. It didn' hurt me or nothin'..." he said, and then stopped talking for a few minutes. Serap did so as well, and once again turned her head to face forward. "I wonder how close we are to the town."

"I thought you were talking to me to keep your mind off the town?" the female red head chuckled at him.

"Oh yeah, that was what it was s'pposed to do, wasn't it... instead ya' jus' proved to me that Des'iny'll always annoy me more than normal girls, and I still wanna get ta' th' town soon..." he laughed.

"I think we all do... hey, wait, isn't that the town just ahead?" Serap exclaimed, and Tasuki's eyes widened as he saw that, right in front of them, were several buildings with lights in them.

"Well, it sure looks like it, considering it has buildings and lights, and I just saw someone go into one of the buildings!" Taka exclaimed from a little ways behind them, and then they heard Miaka's happy cheer follow that.

"Yes! Food, here I come!" she shouted, and they could hear her trying to bug her husband into making the horse go faster, so she could eat as soon as possible.

They rode into the town in silence, all of them feeling very hungry (but none of them was as hungry as Miaka was, even though Tasuki came really close), and they stopped in front of the first inn they came to. Chichiri went in by himself to see if any room was available, and soon came out, saying that there were two rooms left, each with two beds. "How about we take the rooms, and Tasuki and I sleep on the floor, you know?" he suggested, and everyone but Tasuki eagerly agreed.

"Hey, wait just a damn minute, 'ere, 'Chiri! I don' wanna sleep on the fuckin' floor, I want ta' sleep on a _bed_!" he protested, hoping off his horse, and tying it to a post, before rounding on the monk. "Make Des'iny sleep on the floor!"

"Tasuki, Destiny is a woman, it would be impolite to make her sleep on the floor instead of yourself, you know." Chichiri scolded, frowning underneath his mask, and only those who knew him well could tell he was.

Destiny grinned, after she had gotten off and tied up her own horse, and then walked over to the two, her arms crossed. "Yeah, it would be very _impolite_ to make _me_ sleep on the floor, Tasuki. So, you and Chichiri sleep on the floor, and the rest of us get our own beds. And I don't care what room I'm in, as long as it's not in the same one as Tasuki, or Taka and Miaka - they're just so lovey-dovey I feel like puking." she said.

Chichiri shook his head slightly, and went back inside to get the rooms, followed by everyone else, who then veered off when they saw that there was a restaurant (bar, really) attached to the inn. They found the largest table there, and sat down at it, to wait for someone to come take their order. They didn't have to wait too long, for soon someone came up, and asked them what they wanted.

"Everything on this menu, please!" Miaka asked, smiling at the man who was taking their orders, not noticing the wide-eyed stare he was giving her.

"Is that for everyone?" he asked, looking around at every one else, then back to the younger girl he had asked first.

"No, that's just for me." she answered, grinning wider.

"Uh..." he answered, but went on with taking the other orders anyway.

The dinner went on for an hour, and ended when Miaka, Yui, and Serap fell asleep. Destiny, Taka, and Tasuki were close to dozing off themselves, and stood up from the table before they could fall asleep and fall forward into their now empty plates. Chichiri was very tired as well, but not to the point of falling asleep, and stood up with the other three. They then went around trying to wake up the others.

"Aw, I won't wake her. I'll just carry her up to our room; show the way, Chichiri." Taka said, picking his wife up, his left arm around her upper body and his right underneath her knees. Destiny and Tasuki finally succeeded in waking Serap and Yui, who stood up, groggily.

They walked upstairs to the room, with Chichiri leading the way, until they came to two doors, which he indicated were the ones. Taka nodded, and, after Chichiri had unlocked it, pushed his way in, setting his wife down on a bed. Destiny stared at the room's door for a minute, her eyelids drooping slightly, before turning to Tasuki, and pushing him into that room. Everyone expected a fight to ensue, but instead, being too tired to fight, the red head just grumbled, and stumbled into the room.

Destiny then stalked into the other room, followed by Serap, as Yui walked into the other room. Chichiri stood there for a couple minutes, deciding which room to sleep in, before heading into the one that the two girl warriors were in, closing the door behind him.

Once he was in the room, he saw a pair of leather high-heeled boots and a pair of black shoes with golden buckles discarded messily by the door. After taking off his own shoes, he glanced up, and noticed that both girls seemed to already be sound asleep in the beds. Destiny was on the bed closest to the door, and Serap was in the one farthest. Chichiri walked farther into the room, and laid down, using his cloak as a pillow, at the end of both beds. Slowly, he began to find himself falling asleep.

* * *

_"They're dead! Chaim and Demetria Crescent are dead!"_

_"What! But how?"_

_"They were found dead in their bed this morning by their three year old daughter, Starla, and no one can tell what the cause of their deaths were! It seems to have been murder, but there are no signs of outward injury - the only signs that indicates that it was murder were the identical expressions of horror on their faces when they were found."_

_"That's awful!"_

_"Yeah. Especially since their three children are so young..."_

_She stood in the middle of a large room, watching as two women conversed outside a familiar house, staring up at the building with looks of pity on their faces. A terrified expression of realization passed across her face, and she gasped. The scene switched, and she was inside the house, staring down at two pale, horrified faces, while listening to the sobs of three young children. She turned, to see two five year olds and a three year old, huddled together._

_Tear began to streak down her face, and she bit her lip, to keep from letting out a sob as she witnessed the scene. Glancing back at the two bodies laying on the bed, everything switched, and she found herself in the middle of the street, staring at the three children from before, this time four years older, the older girl standing in front of her twin brother and little sister protectively, a sharp stick in hand, while two men laughed at their expense._

_"Looks like the little girl wants to protect her brother and sister from the big, bad men. Too bad she's not gonna do it. The three'll make great servants - and if they don't, we can always just wait until their a bit older and use them as toys!" the taller of the men laughed, and the little girl, with a shout, lunged at him, stabbing him in the knee. "SHIT! **You little bitch!**" He exclaimed, and grabbed the girl by the collar and threw her against the brick wall, with a sickening crunch._

_"Sister!" the girl's twin brother shouted, and began to run towards her, before being grabbed by the shorter man by the back of his shirt's collar and pulled upwards off the ground. "Lemme go! My sister's hurt, let go!" he cried angrily, kicking at his captor, before the man got angry and tossed the boy over his shoulder._

_"Be quiet, you damn brat!" the man growled, and the boy just growled back, kicking and beating against the man's back and chest, but the man did not let him down._

_The younger girl stood there, staring up at the taller man, who was approaching her, with a grin on his ugly face. She whimpered, turning to run, before the man grabbed her from behind, and slung her over his shoulder, like the other man had done with the boy. "Now, now, be a good little girl and do as I say, and I won't have to hurt you." the man said, and the girl went limp over his shoulder, the only sign that she was alive the fact that she was now sobbing quietly._

_The older girl groaned as she began to wake up, and tried to push herself up from the ground, but collapsed back down with a cry of pain, her arm having been broken when she hit the wall. She lay there for another minute, before hearing the boy call her name, and then she struggled to sit up, as quickly as she could. To her horror, she saw her brother and sister being carried away from her, both reaching out towards her, crying. She struggled to her feet, slowly, and then, with a loud growl of rage, she charged at the two men carrying away her only remaining family. "**Give me back my brother and sister!**"_

_Meanwhile, the spectator of the whole scene watched, a hand clasped over her mouth, to keep from sobbing out loud. "No..." she whispered, and reached out towards them, talking a step forward. "Give them back..." she cried quietly, in unison with the nine year old girl, who had now latched onto the taller man's leg, clawing and biting at him. The man growled angrily at her, kicking his leg to shake her off, but she continued to cling desperately to his leg._

_"Come on, Celso! Forget about not hurting that little brat, she's too feisty and it's enough if we have just these two." the shorter man said with an irritated tone, to the other man. The taller man, Celso, took the short man's advice, and swung his leg around towards the wall, causing the girl to slam her back into it, cracking the back of her head._

_"Let's get out of here before the kids' guardians show up, Vishal!" Celso shouted to his shorter companion, and they took off running._

_The girl groaned, and lifted her head, looking in the direction the men were in, her vision blurring from the blow to her head. "No... Ty... Starl...a... I'm... sor...ry... tried... I'm... coming... wait..." she managed, before she finally had to give into the darkness, and collapsed fully to ground once more. Just as she did, a young man and woman walked past, and noticed the girl, rushing to her aid._

_The viewer of the scene finally gave in, and collapsed to her knees, her arms around herself, as she cried, quietly. "No... No! Stop it! No **more!**" as she uttered this, everything around her began to fade, and a calming voice broke pulled her from the depths of the nightmare._

_

* * *

_

Serap woke with a start, sitting up directly in bed, with a muffled cry of surprise. She looked around, and soon found Chichiri sitting on the bed next to her, a concerned look on his un-masked face. Her eyes widened momentarily, but quickly went to back to normal as she remembered her nightmare with a slight sob. The blue haired monk scooted a bit closer, and then pulled her to him, to comfort her. This surprised her, and she stopped crying for a moment, wondering why he was hugging her, letting her cry on his shoulder, but she resumed crying, thankful for some form of comfort. 

Chichiri rubbed her back slowly, as she began to quiet down some. Soon, she pulled away from him, staring into his eye with her red, puffy large eyes, slight embarrassment on her face, and an apologetic expression on her face. "I'm sorry..." she whispered, not wanting to wake up her friend in the opposite bed.

Chichiri looked at her in slightly surprise, and raised his eyebrows, surprised at her apology. "Why are you sorry?" he asked quietly, to which she just shook her head, and backed away slightly from him.

"Because I woke you up. We need plenty of sleep, and because of me, neither of us are gonna get very much. So, I better stop chattering, and get back to sleep quickly, so we can both be rested up enough for tomorrow." she said quickly, smiling politely at him, before nodding slightly, and sliding down under the covers, turning her back to him. He frowned slightly, reached forward, and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright, Serap. I wasn't sleeping very well, anyway, y'know. And you couldn't help it - nightmares often attack at the most inopportune times, believe me, I know. Well, goodnight, Serap, see you in the morning, and I hope you have no more nightmares tonight." he whispered, patted her shoulder with a smile, and stood up off the bed, before lying down right beside it, prepared to offer comfort in case she had any more bad dreams that night.

After a few moments of silence, Serap turned over in her bed, whispering, "Chichiri?" before peering over the edge of her bed, to see the blue haired monk sleeping peacefully right beside the bed. She smiled, and settled down onto her bed again, letting her arm hang over the edge. "Thanks." she whispered, and as she drifted asleep, she thought momentarily, _I sure am glad Des wasn't awake... she'd give me such a hard time tomorrow... or today... or whatever it is now..._ But, little did she know, her best friend was indeed awake, and was grinning evilly, trying her hardest not to snicker, so as not to alert the red head to her awareness.

* * *

A/n: Huh. I'm currently sick with a cold that may turn into pneumonia while writing the end of this, and it's nearly midnight, _and who am I doing this for?_ Who? MYSELF AND MY TWO COUSINS, THAT'S IT! Oh well, this is fun to write, and maybe someday it two years someone may stumble across it and review. I can only hope, ne? But of course, the no-reviews/possibly-no-readers-but-my-cousins thing has it's upsides, too. That means no flamers! Whoohoo! Now, I better go before I die of sore-throat-agony and exhaustion. Sayanora, minna-sama, if anyone is actually reading this! 

Disclaimer: I am too sick to announce the fact that I do not own Fushigi Yuugi, because that will make me feel worse. Bye-bye.


	5. Mt Reicoco?

A/n: Wow. An a/n at the first part of the chapter instead the last part. ((fake gasp)) Right. Anyway. I don't have much to say, except: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! ((pout))

Disclaimer: I don't own anything... the bee of doom took it all away... ((twitch, twitch))

* * *

"Aw. How sweet." Serap awoke to the sound of her best friend snickering, and couldn't figure out what the heck she was talking about. She grumbled slightly, and opened one of her eyes, to see Destiny standing at the end of her bed, staring down beside her bed. She blinked open both her eyes, giving Destiny a confused look. 

"Huh...?" she mumbled, not having the energy to ask what she was staring at and talking about. Destiny glanced up at her, a smirk on her face, and then back down at the floor beside her bed. "Whatcha looking at...?" she mumbled, and peered over the edge of her bed, that her arm was hanging off, to see her hand resting on a sleeping Chichiri's chest. Her eyes widened, and she jumped back, with an exclamation. "CHICHIRI!"

He immediately jumped away, and sat up, glancing around, to see what the danger could be. "What happened, ya' know!" he exclaimed, but after a moment, noticed that nothing seemed to be the problem. He furrowed his eyebrows, and then noticed Destiny standing a few feet away from him, looking past him, with a smirk. He glanced up, and behind him, to see Serap sitting on her bed, staring at him with a shocked, wide eyed look, and a slight blush. "What's the matter, Serap, ya' know?" he asked, wondering why she was staring at him like that.

"Why were you beside my bed! And why was my hand on you?" she asked, seeming to have forgotten that night at the moment. But, then it slowly came back to her, and her blush deepened, embarrassed that she had woken him up. "Oh yeah. I forgot."

Destiny's smirk grew wider, and more evil, as she snickered at the look on Serap's face. "Oh, doing things we shouldn't be doing while roommates are asleep, are we?" she asked, knowing full well that it wasn't the case.

"NO!" Serap shouted, as her shocked, embarrassed gaze snapped to her best friend. "What are you talking about, just because he's lying beside my bed and my hand was on his chest does _not_ mean we did anything of that sort! How can you think that, Des, you know me! And I don't think Chichiri would do that sort of thing either!" she shouted, practically all in one breath, her face seeming to get redder. Destiny raised an eyebrow at the almost too rushed out response she had gotten, thinking that Serap must not have noticed how suspicious it sounded.

Chichiri blushed as well, and looked to Destiny, his eye widening under his mask. "What! No, we did nothing, y'know! I am a monk, I took a vow to never do stuff such as that, y'know!" he stated, to which Destiny turned her 'yeah right' look to him.

"Sure you did." she said, turning around, and walking towards the door. "Well, I'm gonna go down and have breakfast with the others, and leave you two alone, now." she waved over her shoulder, continuing to smirk evilly, glad to get even with Serap.

"_We did nothing, Des!_" Serap shouted after her friend as Des closed the door behind her. The red head sat, glaring at the door for quite a few minutes, before turning back to Chichiri, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry that she included you in her ritual 'torture Serap' session... and about waking you up last night..." she apologized, and Chichiri gave her a confused look.

"Her... 'ritual torture Serap session'...?" he asked, and she laughed, shaking her head slightly.

"Yeah... heh, heh... we have a very interesting friendship. She loves to torture me, I try to torture back, fail miserably each time, and we're kinda like each other's Mom sometimes. As you probably have already seen..." she stated, blushing slightly at the last part, still embarrassed at having been caught in the act of trying to steal the sake. Chichiri laughed slightly, smiling under his mask at her, and stood up from the floor.

"I see. Well, we better get down there before Destiny convinces the others we're doing stuff that we most definitely are not, ya' know." he said, offering Serap a hand, to help her up out of her bed. She took his hand with a 'thank you', and once she was to her feet, she made a swirling motion with her right hand over her left palm, a hairbrush appearing there shortly afterwards. She smiled happily, and quickly ran the brush through her hair several times - when she was done with it, the brush disappeared into thin air.

Chichiri stared at her slightly confused for a second, before snapping himself out of the surprise. _It only makes sense that she can use magic as well, ya' know... I mean, why else would Taiitsukun have brought both of them, ya' know. _He thought to himself.

Serap started to walk over to the door, before pausing, glancing down at herself, then looking up at Chichiri, asking, "Uh… I've got to change clothes, so, do you mind leaving? Please?"

Chichiri smiled at her through his mask, nodded his head, and headed out the door. She called a small thank you after him, before conjuring up a cyan colored spaghetti strapped tank top, and a dark magenta skirt that would come down just above her knees. She then conjured up a long golden ribbon, as well as an azure choker. She quickly dressed in the new outfit, slipped on her shoes, and ran out of the room.

"Okay, I'm done." She announced, smiling at Chichiri, before turning and heading down the stairs. She walked into the bar/restaurant area of the inn, and was greeted by several slightly wide-eyed, startled gazes. She blinked in confusion, wondering why they were staring at her like that. "Why are you staring at…" she started, but once she saw Destiny's smug smirk, her face flamed, and she growled. "YOU!"

Destiny just continued to smirk, snickering slightly under her breath. Miaka cleared her throat, laughing nervously, and trying to give Serap a convincing smile, "So… er… did you… uh, sleep well?" she asked. Serap turned her death glare to the ex-Priestess.

"What do you mean by _that_?" she hissed, taking a couple steps forward. Miaka blinked, scooting her chair closer to Taka's, nervously.

"Um… nothing, I was just wondering…" she tried, laughing nervously again. Serap growled, alternating glaring between everyone at the table.

"What did Destiny tell you? Whatever she said, it's not true! I have a good guess already what she said…" she hissed, just as Chichiri walked in, right behind her. He glanced at her strangely, then to the others, and summed up what must have happened.

"Let me guess... Destiny told you guys what she thinks happened, right?" he asked, with a slight frown showing on his mask. The others nodded, and he sighed, shaking his head. "That is not what happened, y'know. I woke up last night to the sound of Serap having a nightmare, and decided to wake her up. I did, she thanked me, and then I laid down beside her bed in case she had another nightmare, y'know."

Serap glanced to him, and then back to the others, with a smile, wondering why he didn't mention the fact that he had comforted her. _Probably because it would make the situation even more complicated and embarrassing._ She thought to herself, with an unnoticeable nod. "It's true. It's all that happened. And what Des saw, was just because I rolled over and my hand landed on Chichiri's chest. That's all." she added.

Destiny shook head, her smug smirk switching to an evil grin, and chuckled under her breath. "Okay, then, you did nothing last night. But that doesn't mean you didn't _want_ to, or that you won't do things in the future." she snickered, to which Serap turned her gaze to the raven haired female, and frowned again.

"We _didn't_ want to, and we _won't_ Des! Can't you realize that? We-do-_not-_like-each-other-like-that-and-so-we-do-not-want-to-do-anything-of-that-sort! Oh, forget it, everything I say falls on deaf ears. I'm not hungry, I'm going to go wait with the horses. Maybe practice a little fighting or something. I don't know." Serap snapped, her rare angry mood showing itself, as she stomped out of the inn in a huff.

Several of the group jumped as Serap angrily slammed the door - actually, a lot of the people that were around to hear her slam it jumped - and stared off in the direction she had stormed off in. "Well. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, I'd say." Destiny stated, taking a bite of her breakfast, as everyone but Chichiri gave her startled looks.

"Yeah, an' i's all yer fault she's so cranky, too, Des'iny." Tasuki stated, shoveling his breakfast into his mouth as he did so, earning him a vicious glare from the raven haired girl.

"No it's not. Just because I was stating the truth, does not mean she should become so irritable, idiot. She's just being immature." Destiny said, grinning at the redheaded fang-boy.

Tasuki growled, and started to grab for his tessen, but before he could get it, Taka grabbed the bandit's shoulder, and pushed him back into his seat. "Before this becomes another fight-to-the-death, I suggest we plan where we go next. We don't want to just wander around aimlessly." he stated, and Miaka nodded in agreement, clinging to his arm.

"Taka's right." she and Yui said in unison, causing her to giggle slightly. "So, someone should go out and get Serap, right?" she mentioned, and Destiny nodded, looking to Chichiri, with a grin. The monk looked at her in confusion for a moment, before the 'you're the only one she's not pissed off at' meaning of her grin sunk in, and he sighed.

"I'll be right back, y'know." he said, turning back around (having not sat down yet) to the entryway, and walking to the front door. He opened the door, and stepped out, looking around the front of the building, surprised to not see the tiny redhead anywhere. "Serap?" he called, and waited for a minute, to see or hear any sign of her.

"Huh? Chichiri?" he heard Serap's voice asked from the right, and he looked over there, to see her peering around the corner of the building in confusion at him. She walked around the corner, and then towards him. "That was quick. I didn't think that you guys'd eat so fast..." she said, and would've continued had Chichiri not held up his hand, indicating that she should stop. "Huh?"

He shook his head, and told her, "No, no, that's not it, y'know. They wanted me to come get you so we could discuss where we should travel next, y'know." She blinked at him, before nodding her head slowly, as it registered in her mind.

"Oh. Okay." she answered, simply, smiling at him, and with that they both headed inside, to the table where the others were seated. Serap and Chichiri each took a seat - Serap next to Destiny, even though she was still sore about the Chichiri thing, and Chichiri next to Tasuki - and they sat there for several minutes, each waiting for another to start into the discussion.

It was several silent minutes later that Chichiri finally sighed, with a shake of his head, and spoke up. "All right. Does anyone have any idea where to go? Any idea at all, y'know?" he asked, and the group looked back and forth between each other, before Tasuki grinned.

"I 'ave an idea!" he exclaimed excitedly, but before he could get the idea said, Destiny interrupted him.

"I don't think we want to go wherever you thought of. It probably has something to do with drinking sake - because, from what I could tell, you must like sake as much as Serap. Am I right?" she said, with a knowing look on her face. Tasuki frowned, opening his mouth in protest, before snapping it shut again, and then opening it again.

"No! I mean... yes! I do love sake, bu' tha's not why I wanna go where I thin' we should go! I wanna go ta' Mt. Reikaku, ta' visit Kouji. He might know sumthin', an' his girlfrien' is real suspicious, not ta' mention irritatin'. She showed up right aroun' when 'Chiri told me tha' the enemy showed up. Maybe a coupla days after." he said, glaring at Destiny, who rolled her eyes in a motion of her obvious disbelief.

"Right... wanna go to wherever you said to visit whoever you said... just because whoever-you-said's little girlfriend is 'suspicious'. Sure. You probably have a large stash of sake at that place, don't you? Mhm. I say we go in the _opposite_ direction of where this 'Mt. Reicoco' is." Destiny said, purposefully pronouncing 'Reikaku' wrong.

"Damnit, Des'iny, I don' wanna go there 'cause I wan' sake, an' it's _Mt._ _Reikaku_!" Tasuki growled, standing up so quickly his chair fell backwards, and slamming his hands palm down on the table. "Yer purposefully tryin' to piss me off, aren'tcha? Well it's workin'!" he was starting to reach for his tessen, when he was shoved, once again, back into his seat, this time by Chichiri.

"Calm down, Tasuki, y'know. You don't want to end up burning down the inn again, like that one time, y'know..." the monk said, with a sweatdrop. Tasuki just continued to glare at Destiny, who just smirked at him. Chichiri looked back and forth between the two, sweatdropping again, and clearing his throat to get their attention. "Well, I think since Tasuki's idea is the only suggestion, we should go with that for now, y'know."

Tasuki grinned in triumph, going SD, and doing a short victory dance, before turning back to Destiny and sticking out his tongue. "Ha, ha! I won! We're goin' ta' Mt. Reikaku, and there's nothin' ya' can do 'bout it, Des'iny! Nyeh!" he taunted, to which Destiny narrowed her eyes.

"So?" she said, leaning back in her chair crossing her arms. "I don't care. I was just stating the truth, you probably just wanna go there for sake. If the others want to go along with your stupid plan, then we'll go along with your stupid plan. I'm just here because Serap begged me to stay here - probably so she can get close to Chichiri."

Serap's eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. "_Whaaat!_ That's not the reason!" she exclaimed, wondering why in the world her best friend was so adamant about teasing her and Chichiri, just because of the incident this morning. But, even as she began to wonder, she nearly rolled her eyes at herself. _Of course. It's Des. She loves any opportunity to make me irritated._

"Uh, so, when are we going to take off?" Yui cut in, Miaka and Taka nodding in agreement with her question, having been wondering that themselves. Destiny immediately cut off her reply to Serap, and turned to Chichiri, nodding her head. "That's a good question. How about we take off now? My stuff's all already on my horse. I didn't bother bringing in any of it last night." she stated.

"Yeah, I didn't bother bringing in any of my stuff last night, either. I was too tired..." Serap said, the previous irritation still obvious on her face.

"I didn't bring my stuff in, either... not that I really _have_ stuff to bring in..." Yui said, realizing with a sigh that she didn't have any extra stuff with her, since they had just been randomly sucked in. _Wait... come to think of it, Destiny and Serap were just randomly sucked in, too. Why do they have stuff with them? _Yui thought, and spoke her thoughts out loud to the two.

Destiny shrugged, grinning at the former Priestess of Seiryuu. "I told you before. Remember? Serap and I were going to go somewhere to get something for someone. We had just finished packing when we found this book lying on Serap's stuff. She didn't know where it came from, I didn't know where it came from, so, naturally, we opened it." she stated, before scowling at the memory of being pulled into the book. "And when we did this weird purplish light pulled us in."

"Oh. That explains it, then, I guess." Yui said, standing up, and smiling around at the others. "So, since we're all basically ready, should we get going?" she asked, and Chichiri nodded in agreement, getting to his feet, followed by Serap, then Destiny, then Tasuki, and lastly Taka and Miaka.

They proceeded out the door and to the stable where the horses were located. They walked in to the stable, and looked around the area for the stableman, but so no sign of him. "Hello! Mr. Stable guy, are you here? It's us, the ones with the three black horses, the black and white horse, the white horse, and the tan horse!" Miaka called out, and then waited for a few minutes, but still received no answer. She frowned in confusion, before twisting her head around to look at Taka, who was standing directly behind her. "He's not here... should we just take our horses...? But what if he thinks someone else took them..."

Destiny strode forward, in the direction of one of the black horses, a smirk spreading it's way across her features. "He won't think that. We'll just leave him a note. Simple enough." she stated, rifling through one of the bags hung across the horse's back, before pulling out a piece of paper and a pen. She placed the paper flat in her left palm, and wrote down that they had taken their horses, not anyone else. When she was finished writing the note, she used a nail that was already on the wall for unknown reasons, and stuck the note to the wall where the stableman was sure to notice. "There. Simple, no?"

Tasuki rolled his eyes, walking past Destiny, to another of the black horses. As he was walking past, she heard him grumble something about a big showoff, and she narrowed her eyes at his back, muttering something under her breath. She was staring so hard at his back, that it looked as if she was trying to set his back aflame; and, after a few minutes, everyone found out that's exactly was she was trying to do. "SHIT!" Tasuki yelped, running around in SD form, a small flame working it's way up the back of his shirt.

Taka grinned, grabbing a pail of water, and running after Tasuki. He chased the bandit for several minutes, before bringing his arms back, then flinging them forward again, letting the water fly out of the bucket, and hit the cursing, SD bandit right across the back, making him freeze up. Taka snickered under his breath, at the way Tasuki was now just standing there, in the position he was last running in, looking like he was about to fall over onto his face.

Tasuki, ever-so-slowly twisted around, to face Taka, with a vicious gleam on his face. He growled, reaching back for his tessen, but before he could get it, Destiny had grabbed him by the back of his jacket collar, dragged him across the room to Taka, grabbed the hysterically laughing sea green haired boy by the back of his shirt, and then walked back over to each of their respective horses, plopping them down on the saddles. After that was finished, she dusted off her hands, and walked over to hop up on her own horse - leaving the two Suzaku seishi to blink in shock at the strength she had shown.

After they had all mounted their horses, and the shock from Destiny's fire ability and strength had worn off, they set off, in the general direction of Mt. Reikaku, completely oblivious to the figure in the shadows, watching them with a narrowed amber gaze. The figure chuckled, muttering under it's breath before fading, "Seraph... Destiny... we meet again."

* * *

A/n: Yeah, the figure in the shadows thing is a bit... cliché. But, hey, it's like my mark. I have it in practically everything I write, even if it's just a highschool romance thing... ((rolls eyes)) Anyway. Cliffhanger? Are you at all on the edge of your seats? Are you even there? Are you **on** a seat? Is the fic bad enough that you've actually... ((le-gasp))... _fallen asleep?_ I wouldn't be surprised, no da! Ja ne, I must go, my parents are bugging me to leave the computer now. ((pout)) 


	6. Bad Kitty!

A/n: ((runs around in happy circles)) YEEE! Someone besides people I know reviewed and they said they actually liked it! ((goes wacko)) YEEEEEE! ... ((stops, notices the strange stares, and sweatdrops, laughing nervously)) Uh hum. Eheheh, ignore that little outburst. _It never happened_. Yeah. Anyway. I am really happy at the moment. Even though I have a bad headache. Oddness! Well, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I only own Serap, the shadowed figure, the main enemy, Kouji's girlfriend, and a few others characters. I don't own Fushigi Yuugi, and I don't even own Destiny. My cousin owns Des. And I don't own some other characters that show up later, either.

* * *

He was late. Not like that was anything unusual, he was always late, but he was even later than he normally would be, and she was getting impatient. She had sent him to check out her next victims at least three hours ago. _Where could he have gone?_ She thought, drumming her fingers impatiently against the arm of her chair. She thought about where her servant could have gone for a minute, before rolling her eyes, realizing exactly where he was with a vexed sigh. "Oh, my dear Monsieur Crescent... I specifically informed you that you could not stop at one of _those_ places..." she murmured to herself, with a shake of her head. 

"Oh, Mademoiselle, I am dismayed that you would think so lowly of your most loyal subject! You know I would not go against your wishes." she heard an all-too familiar mischievous male tone chuckle from in front of her, and she jerked her head up, swiping the long silvery bangs out of her face, allowing her to see the owner of the voice standing a few feet in front of her. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he had a grin plastered on his lightly freckled face.

She narrowed her eyes at his obvious disrespect, but let it slide, knowing that he would always be this way, no matter what. "Oh? Is that so? Then, tell me, Sir Crescent, why were you late in returning from your task? You should have arrived back at least an hour ago." she questioned him in a reproachful tone, crossing her right leg over her left. The young man in front of her just continued to grin, shrugging a shoulder as if her higher position didn't matter to him. _Which_, she thought with a mental eye roll, _it probably doesn't._

"I found something that you would probably find of interest, Milady. But, if you're that angry with me, I suppose anything I have to say is not going to satiate you..." he said in a tone that she knew for a fact he used only to agitate her. She closed her eyes in aggravation, leaning on the left arm of her chair, kneading her aching head with the hand she had her head rested in.

"Sir Crescent. Just tell me the reason you are late, so I can choose whether or not to be angry - if you do not tell me forthwith I'm giving you to Tiamat to let him deal with you, and you know you wouldn't come back from that with no injuries, no matter how great your magic is." she said scathingly, to which the young man, 'Sir Crescent', just chuckled, and lifted his crossed arms up to rest behind his head.

"Yeah, yeah. I know all about your eighth little servant. Remember? When your Moon Disaster found me and I wouldn't do as you said, you sent me to that... whatever it is." he stated, with an almost undetectable shudder, remembering exactly the condition he was in after that. He couldn't stand, he could barely breath, and he could barely keep consciousness. He then shook off the thoughts, and proceeded to tell the impatient silvery-purple-pink haired woman exactly why he was late. "I ran into some people we both know, Rhi. They-"

"Agh! Have I not told you before, never to call me that? It is either Milady, Ma'am, Madam, or anything of high importance! Even Your Highness or Your Majesty would work, just, not Rhi! Or you can even call me by my real name, but you have to add Lady before it, you understand, Mr. Crescent?" she snapped, slapping her hand, palm down onto the hard right arm of her chair, with a scowl marring her normally beautiful features.

Sir Crescent rolled his eyes, curling his lips up sarcastically at the corner. "Yeah, right, right. I ran into some people we both know, _Milady_. They were with those two you told me to keep an eye on - those two that could possibly be a threat. Oh, and they got their little Priestess person and another seishi back. Not to mention another Priestess. So, I'm pretty sure they know they're gonna need all the help they can get to defeat us - er, I mean, _you_." he grinned sardonically once more, sketching an equally sarcastic bow. She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't bother reprimanding him, instead motioning for him to continue. "Well, I was watching the two, although it was strange, I lost them around this completely blank, rocky mountain area, and then suddenly, I found them again a couple of days later, and they had five extra people with them. Two of which, I recognized, and was extremely shocked to see in this world.

"They were... Destiny, and Seraph - who is better known now, I've found out, as Serenia, or Serap. 'Course, she's always been known as Serap..." before he even started into saying the part about "Seraph"'s name, he saw how dramatically the woman's face went from uninterested and vexed, straight to appalled and startled. She sat straight up in her chair, her back rigid, her eyes as wide as saucers. He blinked at her reaction, but wasn't really that surprised, seeing as how they were probably the last people that she wanted to be there.

"_What_ did you just say...?" she whispered dangerously, almost like if he said it again, she would order him thrown to the afore mentioned 'Tiamat'. The young man nodded his slowly, silently telling her that she had, indeed, heard correctly, and her hearing was not prematurely going bad. She growled under her breath, clutching the ends of the throne's arms, and the boy noted that the arms were actually beginning to crack. "This is most displeasing, Tyshawn, most displeasing indeed. You are here to prevent things like **this** from happening. I would have you sent to my labyrinth, but I still need you, unfortunately. Now, before I change my mind, go out and track them, inform me on their progress, and if they get close at all, stall them. I don't care how, just do it. Now, shoo! Get out, find them, track them! Oh, and, do you know where they were heading to, perchance?"

Tyshawn had turned and was leaving when she asked this, so he stopped, and turned his head slightly, just enough to see her out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah. To a place called Mt. Reikaku." and with that said, he turned, walked a few paces, and disappeared in a flash of what appeared to be a strange version of television static.

The woman slumped back into her seat, closing her eyes, and pressed her fingertips to her temples, letting go of a distressed sigh. "Fabulous... simply _wonderful_... this could put a damper on my whole operation... but, I'm not going to let this get me down. This might just be a minor bump in the road to my objective." she murmured, with a slight smirk to herself.

* * *

The trip to Mt. Reikaku was a quiet, calm one. Everyone held small, nice conversations, no one attempted to kill one another, and it was, in a word, pleasant. 

But, of course, if you've read the previous chapters, you know that's a complete and utter lie.

The trip was far from quiet, or calm. It was more along the lines of loud and chaotic - but that was mostly just on Destiny and Tasuki's end of the conversation. The word farthest from everyone's mind at the moment was 'pleasant'. Once again, Tasuki had grumbled something about Destiny, which, she had just so happened to hear, and once again, Tasuki had a flame crawling up his back.

The trip continued in the same fashion, Taka every once and a while joining in to splash water on the flame haired bandit, until Chichiri told Destiny and Tasuki to stop their 'arguing' for a few minutes. They both looked to him with similar scowls on their faces. "Hey, 'Chiri, what's the deal? Ya' didn' seem ta' mind a minute ago..." Tasuki questioned, and Chichiri briefly glanced back at him, before looking towards the trees that they were coming up to.

"I sense something from the trees ahead of us, you know. I can't tell whether they are human or animal, good or evil, I can only tell that they are there, so it's best to be on the safe side and be quiet." he stated, quietly, motioning for the others to stop. They did as told, and as soon as they had done so, Chichiri hopped off of his horse, beginning to walk slowly towards the trees, cautiously.

"'Chiri, what're ya' doin'?" Tasuki exclaimed, but was shushed by the blue-haired monk, who didn't even look around to him. He scowled, and was gonna yell at the monk again, but a hand went over his mouth, silencing him. He glanced in the direction of the owner of the hand, to see Destiny, smirking at him, and it was all he could do not to viciously bite the hand over his mouth. He, instead, just tried to pry the hand off - unsuccessfully. So, he settled for watching Chichiri walk towards the trees, with a hand over his mouth.

Chichiri, now that he was closer, could sense that thing was not human; but, it did not have the same feel as a normal animal, either. He frowned, hearing rustling coming from only a few feet in front of him. He took a few steps backwards from the trees, but as he did so, a menacing pair of glowing red eyes appeared through the darkness. He gasped in slight shock, bringing his staff around in front of him, to guard himself incase whatever it was pounced, continuing to back away. But, even as he was backing up, the thing crept towards him, out of the shadows of the trees.

Now, in plain view, everyone knew that it wasn't going to be a simple thing to defeat. Slit-like glowing red eyes, large tiger-like body shape, with long lime green fur with emerald stripes, and long razor sharp fangs. It's paws were large enough to swipe a head clear off a human, and to add to that effect, from each paw protruded long knife-like claws. It had it's gaze firmly upon the monk, and was it just Chichiri's imagination, or was it smirking at him?

They stood there, unmoving, and completely silent, except for Miaka's muffled whimpers of fear. They all were hoping the same thing: that the beast would go away if they were completely still, and mute. The tiger-demon took a few steps towards Chichiri, and began to sniff him, from head to feet. When it began to sniff his hair, in sniffed in his bangs, and immediately, it let out a large, loud sneeze. Chichiri had to fight to keep his balance as the wind from the tiger's sneeze blasted against him, but he ended up stumbling backwards, and landing on his posterior. The demon snorted, pawing at it's nose, as if to get the feeling of having the bangs in it's nose out. _Maybe I can escape now, you know..._ he thought to himself, scrambling backwards, before rolling onto his knees, jumping to his feet, and walking quickly away from the tiger.

It let out a small snarl, and placed it's paw back onto the ground. He glanced over his shoulder, and his eye widened, when he saw it walking in his direction, an angry gleam in it's eyes. "Everyone, get ready to fight." he advised, turning back towards the beast, standing in a ready position, his staff held out in front of him. He brought his fingers up in front of his mouth in the usual style, and he chanted a spell under his breath.

As he was doing this, everyone else (except for Miaka and Yui, who knew not how to fight) slipped from their horses, ready to fight the monster. Tasuki whipped out his fan, Taka get into an attack position, Destiny cracked her knuckles, and a foot-long sky blue rod with what looked like wings with a golden hoop engraved with sapphires at the top end of it materialized into Serap's right hand. "Finally, something to seriously take my anger out on." Destiny chuckled, with a smirk. "And, only a Felinalk? Shame. I had hoped for something more threatening."

The Felinalk let out a mix between a wail and a snarl, then opened it's massive jaws, and - to the shock of everyone but Destiny and Serap - a large sphere of ice was shot out at them. The ones who had seen what was going to happen beforehand leapt out of the way, but Taka, who didn't have time to, instead flung his fist at the frozen ball, and when they connected, it split down the middle, then shattered into splinters at his feet. "A ball of ice? That was definitely unexpected! Hey, Destiny, this demon cat have any other tricks up it's sleeves that we should know about?" he shouted to the raven-haired female, who had begun to run at the demon-tiger.

"Just a few - the claws get longer, the fangs are poisonous, it can freeze the ground underneath you which causes you - if you have bad balance, like Serap - to slip and crack your head, and the tail can KO you in one swipe, unless you're nearly invincible. Any other questions?" she shouted back at him, placing her wrists across each other in front of her face, and her six-inch long claws appeared once more; her eyes converting directly from lavender, to crimson, in a matter of seconds.

He glanced at her, sort of surprised at her transformation, but then remembered back to the day they left Mt. Taikyoku, where she had gotten pissed off at Tasuki. She had changed to look like this then, too. He wondered briefly if she was even human, but he inwardly laughed at his own thoughts, shaking that idea out of his head. "Nope! No more questions." he shouted an answer at her, running at the Felinalk, fist ready.

Destiny jumped quickly out of the way of the enormous paw that was coming at her, and then jumped onto it, using it as a catapult to give her a lift onto the cat's back. As soon as she was on it's back, she crouched down at the base of it's neck, stabbing each of her sets of claws into both sides of the demon's neck. A loud, painful snarl sounded from it's mouth, and it whipped it's head around every which way, trying to shake her off, bringing it's paws up to bat at her, but not reaching. She then sneered in a deranged way, quickly pulling her hands upwards, ripping the sides of the tiger's neck open. "That should take care of it!" she exclaimed, and as she did so, the Felinalk let out a thunderous roar of pain, staggering around aimlessly, trying to stay on it's feet. She quickly got to feet, and gracefully jumped onto the ground beside Serap, who had walked closer to the monster.

Destiny's whole move had been so fast, that Taka hadn't even been able to get all the way to the tiger-demon, before it collapsed. He skidded to a stop in front of it, and just stared down in shock at it's slashed open neck. "Whoa. I thought that was gonna be harder than it was..." he said, trailing off as he just barely caught the twitch of it's eyelids.

"Careful - it's not dead yet. That was just to weaken it! It'll take a couple more hits to take it out." Des called to him, and the warning seemed to come out just in time - as soon as it left her mouth, the Felinalk's head jerked upwards, and it attempted to clamp it's jaws around Taka's arm. But, he was able to jump back a second before he lost a limb.

He didn't really have time to recover from the shock, before he had to dodge out of the way once again, swinging a fist into the Felinalk's face as it's mouth snapped down on thin air. It's head flung to the side, and it let out a snarl, turning back to face it's attacker. It's eyes seemed to be glowing even more intensely, as it charged at him, mouth open, and ready to snap him in half. He had been backed slowly away from it, but when it began to charge at him, he got into a defensive position, ready to jump over it, when it reached him.

However, it never reached him. It suddenly completely froze in spot, still looking as if it was running, with it's mouth hanging open, but it was not moving a muscle. Taka slowly moved his arms from in front of him, to his sides, and he glanced to Chichiri, who was obviously the one who had frozen the beast. "Thanks, Chichiri!" he exclaimed, and ran to the side of the beast, up to it's right foreleg. He then slugged it so hard, that it snapped in two, and the tiger made a strangled noise of pain. He proceeded to go around doing that to all of it's legs, and then gripped it's tail in both of his hands, twisting it so hard and far that it broke.

Tasuki, not happy with not getting a single turn, ran up, and shouted, "REKKA SHINEN!" with a wave of his fan. Flame shot from the fan, and engulfed the tiger-demon, as well as Taka, burning them both to a crisp. He smirked, watching his work slowly burn out, the tiger collapsing to the ground (Chichiri let go of the immobilizing spell), obviously quite finished. Taka just stood there, where he was before, the only part of him not singed being his eyes, which were narrowed at Tasuki, who just continued to smirk.

Taka was about to charge at Tasuki and punch him square in the face for, once again, frying him, when the tiger snarled weakly, and twitched, trying to get to it's feet - but that was a futile attempt, seeing as how it's legs were broken. Taka immediately ran away from it, staring in astonishment that it was _still alive_ after all that had been done to it. He heard a shout in an unknown language from behind him, and a large icicle with what appeared to be electricity twining it's way through it appeared out of nowhere above the demon-kitty, falling down, and piercing right through the tiger's back. Before it completely went limp it jerked violently as if electrocuted, gave a last pitiful mewl, and it finally collapsed, done for good.

Taka, Tasuki, Chichiri, Miaka, and Yui all looked to the source of the shout, to see Serap, still with her winged-wand held out in front of her. She glanced around at them, a light flush covering her cheeks. "What?" she questioned, before heading back to her horse, and hopping up on it. _I have never seen a move like that before. The closest I've ever seen to moves like Destiny and Serap do, were Ashitare and Soi... that can't be good. Definitely need to keep an eye on them... _Taka thought, mounting his horse, behind Miaka.

"What should we do with it?" Yui queried, furrowing her eyebrows, and glancing back and forth between the others. Miaka shrugged, glancing over her shoulder at Taka, who just shook his head in a gesture meaning 'I don't know', and then they both looked over to Chichiri. He was about to answer them, when Destiny butted in.

"We should just leave it, I say. For the other carnivores. I mean, we don't need to do anything with the dead carcass of a stupid Felinalk. It'd just take the precious time that we do not have. Let's get going, forget about the thing." she stated, jumping up into the saddle of her pure black horse, and giving the others a look that plainly said 'I'm right, just listen to me'. They each gave a different response, but all (but Tasuki's, his was a bit rude) had about the same meaning - that they agreed.

So, they once again, took off for Mount. Reikaku, which, now was not far at all. Actually, there were at the base of it during the battle, so all they had to do was head up the mountain, and hope the bandits didn't attack them. Tasuki kept confidently telling them, however, that since he was with them, there was no chance of attack.

Meanwhile, back where they had defeated the Felinalk, a shadowy figure stepped out of the trees, and pulled the hood down away from it's face, revealing Sir Crescent, who had his eyes narrowed, not pleased at all. "Damn them. My poor kitty... but, I should have known, since they had Destiny and Seraph with them... Guess I'll just have to think of a better plan than just a simple beast." he muttered to himself, before giving the tiger one last sad goodbye, and disappearing in the same strange television static.

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A/n: The Felinalk was Sir Crescent's pet, if you hadn't already guessed. Just thought I'd add that. Next chapter: They meet Kouji's girlfriend! Bai-bai until then, minna-san! 


	7. Lolinia Daudet

Disclaimer: Me no own Fushigi Yuugi characters. Yuu Watase does. Me only own Serap, Sir Crescent, the evil girl (name unknown to you as of yet), Kouji's girlfriend, and a few other characters... Oh, and the Felinalk. Well, actually, Sir Crescent owned it...

* * *

"'They won't attack us, I'm with you, I'm the leader!' You said! Ha! Never trusting _you_ again." Destiny snapped at Tasuki, smirking slightly at the end of her sentence. "Not that I did in the first place." 

"Oh shut up..." he grumbled, as they were being led to Kouji, down the hallways of the bandit stronghold. When they were heading up Mt. Reikaku a group of the bandits had appeared out of seemingly nowhere, taking the group by surprise, and capturing them. Destiny had gotten away from them once, even though there were about five men holding her; but, they had caught up to her again, and she gave in, realizing that if they were to go up to Mt. Reikaku, she would have to pretend to be captured. Tasuki had waved the fan around in the air, yelling at them to stop what they were doing, because he was the leader, but they had just laughed and told him firmly that Kouji was the leader.

"Well, from what Tasuki was saying before, there are traps set for intruders - at least we got escorted through those, right?" Serap said, glancing over at Destiny, who just rolled her eyes and grumbled something under her breath.

"I could've got us through those..." Tasuki snapped, glaring over at the female red head, who looked down at her feet, frowning.

"Right." she mumbled, and jerked her head back up, as her captor pushed her roughly forward, indicating for her to walk faster and pay attention. "Sorry, sorry!" she said, returning to the pace the others were walking at.

"I'm getting a strong sense of deja vu, here..." Miaka said to herself, remembering back when she, Hotohori, and Nuriko had been captured, and the bandits had thought that they were _all_ women. She laughed slightly, and then shuddered, also remembering Eiken, who had tried to... _Stop thinking about that, Miaka, you idiot! It's over. It's Kouji that's in charge right now - well, actually, it's Tasuki, but neither of them would try to do something like that! _She mentally scolded herself, frowning.

They fell back into silence, until they finally reached the doors to the eating room (couldn't really call it a 'dining room' in a bandit's stronghold, y'know). Miaka's captor let go of her hands, and walked up to the door, knocking on it. "Hey, boss, we captured some trespassers! Can we come in?" he asked, and heard a 'yes' from the other side of the door. So, he swung them open, and led the others in. "See, we captured 'em, they was on their way up here, probably from Mt. Kaou or sumfin' like that..." he trailed off, noticing that Kouji was on his feet, and giving him a deadly look.

"I know several of those prisoners. One of them is the _real leader!_" he exclaimed, and the captors cowered slightly, except for the one who had been talking. He just stood there, gaping at Kouji, before looking back at Tasuki, who smirked at him. He quickly apologized, then turned and hurried out of the room, followed by the other bandits who had captured the group. Kouji continued to scowl until the incompetent bandits were out of the room, then he grinned widely, and rushed down, to Tasuki. "Sorry, buddy! New recruits, never seem ta' know anythin'." he said, untying the ropes around Tasuki's wrists.

"Yeah, I tried ta' tell 'em I was th' leader, bu' they wouldn't listen! I threatened to flame their asses if they didn' let go'a me, but, they took my - WAIT A MINUTE! They still have my fan! Dammit!" he cursed, turning around to go and chase down the one who had his fan. But, before he had even taken two steps, Kouji pulled him back, and pointed towards the floor.

"Th' fan's on the floor, Genrou." he stated, and Tasuki cheered, quickly picking up the fan, and holding it up in triumph.

"Yes!" he then grinned at Kouji, and without any more delays, they did their ritual dance. "It's great ta see ya' again, Kouji! Been waaay too long!"

"Yeah, how've ya' been, Genrou? I thought ya' ta' be _dead_, since ya' didn' return after ya' came back ta' meet my girlfrien'!" Kouji replied as they continued their dance, while Destiny and Serap stared at them with strange looks, having not seen such a thing as dancing bandits in their lives.

"Speakin' of yer girlfrien'..." Tasuki stopped in his tracks, and pulled away from Kouji, his mood switching to mostly serious. The blue-haired bandit halted, gazing at Tasuki in confusion. "We need ta' see 'er. Is sh' here?" he inquired, to which Kouji nodded his head, and turned to another bandit in the room, telling him to go get 'Lola'. The drunk underling nodded, and ran out of the room, stumbling as he did so.

"Why d'ya' need ta' see 'er?" he asked, walking over to the table, and motioning for everyone else to follow. They did so, each taking a seat at the long table, while watching Kouji. "I mean, 't's not like she's 'n trouble 'r anythin' like that, right?" he looked around the table with a slightly worried look.

"She's not yet, but she might be, because the idiot here says that you met her right around when Taiitsukun found out about this new evil that we're here to fight." Destiny supplied, and at Kouji's slightly confused expression, she gave him a half-grin and a nod. "I'm Destiny Lorelei, if you're wondering. And this's Serap - or Serenia Pottain, but she prefers Serap." She stated, placing a hand on Serap's head, and ruffling her hair, which produced a loud protest and much slapping of the older girl's hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know, 'don't touch the 'fro!'."

Serap gave her raven haired friend quite an irritated look, before she shook her head, turning away from Destiny, while smoothing out her hair. "It's not an afro. It's just my haaa-AAAAAH!" her statement trailed off into a scream as she caught sight of the door. She fell backwards out of her chair, then, popping chibi, scrambled up onto Destiny's back, shivering in either fear, or disgust, the ebony haired girl couldn't decide. "L... Lo... Loli... _Lolinia_!" she squeaked, pointing towards the door. Des's eyes widened, and her head snapped around so that her gaze rested on the door. Immediately, a curse left her lips, and she narrowed her eyes.

There, in the doorway, stood a girl of about 5'6", with boy-short golden-orange hair that was feathered (layered), and sparkling, large, optimistic lime green eyes. She was thin, with a slightly tanned complection. She wore a green, blue, and silver silk Chinese dress, with tall white leather boots, that obviously weren't normal for Ancient China; she wore a few necklaces, and a couple bracelets on each wrist. She looked as much like she belonged in Ancient China as Destiny and Serap did. She stuck out like a sore thumb.

When she glanced around the table, her eyes went right over the two girls, but swiftly returned to them, and a big smile broke out over her face. "Destiny! Serenia! How on _Earth_ did you two end up here?" she exclaimed happily, trotting in their direction, until she stood beside Kouji, her hands resting on the table, palms flat. "I never would've thought to see you here in a million years!" she chirped.

Destiny surged to her feet, face-to-face with Lolinia Daudet, with the chibi Serap still on her back, peering over one of her shoulders at the golden-haired girl. "_How _did _we_ get here? How did _YOU_ get here! _Why_ are you here? Shouldn't you be somewhere else? Shouldn't you be _dead_?" she snapped, slapping her own hands down onto the table-top, not noticing it crack beneath her palms.

Lolinia giggled, and shook her head, her hair bouncing slightly. "No, no, I shouldn't be dead - I haven't done anything dangerous, why _should_ I be dead? That's just silly, Destiny!" she tittered, placing the fingers of one of her hands over her mouth as she giggled. Des could feel her eye twitch, and her already thin patience beginning to leave her.

Before she could punch a hole through the blonde's face, she heard a voice whisper in her ear. "Dessss, if she really is on the enemy's side, then we need to keep her alive, so we can find out information about who she's working for. But, feel free to kill her if she tries anything." Serap's voice hissed, and she rolled her eyes, before nodding reluctantly.

"Fine, fine..." she whispered back, still glaring daggers into Lolinia. "Hm. I had heard from someone that you were. They must have been _mistaken_. Oh well." she bit out sharply, before continuing, "So. You're here, too. And His Imbecilicness's friend's girlfriend. What happened to-?" Lolinia cut her off before she could finish her question, with a glare, cleverly disguised as a bright grin.

"Hehehe! Yes, I am Kouji's girlfriend now! We love each other so _much_! Don't we, _'Ji-'Ji_?" she bubbled, skipping over to Kouji, and draping herself around his neck, nuzzling his cheek with her nose. He twitched in response, but tried desperately to conceal it - failing horribly, so instead making it look a bit like a shiver of cold. But, everyone but Lolinia seemed to know that it was _not_ from the cold, from the irritated gleam in Kouji's eyes.

"Yes, we do, Lola... but, I **thought** I told you never to call me that?" he said, the question rhetorical, and amazingly, Lolinia seemed to understand that and didn't answer, just shrugging her shoulders, giggling, and nuzzling her nose into his neck. "Heh... not now, okay, Lola?" he mumbled to her, and she nodded her head, before straightening back up, and walking back over to where Destiny and Serap were.

"So!" she chirped, smiling brightly, and slapping her palms down onto the table again, looking between Des and Serap. "What were you two wanting of me?" her voice had a suggestive tone to it, and the two girls shuddered at the thought of what she was probably thinking.

"We were just wanting to find out where you came from. And now that we've found that out, since it's you, we want to know _how_ you got _here_." Destiny said, giving the orange-haired female a deadly look, that told quite plainly what it meant. Lola just shrugged that off, like Kouji's rhetorical question, beaming brightly. _She's just as dense as ever..._ Destiny thought to herself, with a shake of her head.

"I don't know! I was just going about my day, when all of a sudden, I was in this weird place, and this big, strong, handsome, noble..." Here, Lolinia sighed romantically, looking over at Kouji with a love-struck look on her face. Kouji noticed the look, and grinned slightly, although it looked a bit on the fake side. No one else noticed the fake tinge, but Tasuki could spot that 'If-you-say-so-I'm-not-gonna-argue-but-I-really-wish-you'd-shut-up-and-leave-me-the-fuck-alone' look a mile away. He narrowed his eyes, telling himself that he'd have to ask his friend about this later.

"Get ON with it..." Destiny sighed in impatience, glaring at Lola, who gave the raven-haired girl a slightly piqued look, before going back to her story, fixing her hair for no particular reason except to get on Des' nerves.

"Right. So, as I was saying, I was rescued by Kouji, who is now, as you know, my loyal, wonderful lover. And he brought me back here. The rest doesn't matter because it has nothing else to do with what you're asking." she stated, smiling brightly at the pair, and tilting her head slightly. "Anything else you wish to know?"

"Why are you here without Chelsea?" Serap broke in, and everyone but her, Des, and Lolinia lost track of what they were saying right there. None of them knew of any 'Chelsea' person - whoever it was, Lolinia did not look happy to have that question asked.

"That is none of your business, Serenia." Lolinia snapped, glaring at the chibi girl, who was glaring right back from her place on Destiny's back.

"Oh? Well you asked us if we had anymore questions. We kinda _figured_ - I know, kind of stupid of us - that you would answer if you were asked. How could we dare ask questions when it clearly, _undoubtedly_ wasn't our business! Oh! I am ashamed of us." Destiny snapped bitingly, with a roll of her eyes, and a slam of her fist to the table, causing it to crack and splinter in that spot. "We are so rude. Now, will you please forgive us by letting us slice your head off?"

Lolinia jumped in surprise at Destiny's outburst, and backed up a couple of steps from the table, a wide-eyed look plastered on her face. "Wh... y... no! 'Ji-'Ji, are you going to let her threaten my _life_ like that!" she exclaimed, looking over to Kouji, who shook his head, with a frown on his face, and got to his feet, walking over to Lola and wrapping his arms around her protectively.

"Oh, no, you are in danger, better have dear Gigi come save you. Boo-hoo-hoo." Destiny snorted, a smirk coming to her face. "Well, better hope that little Gigi is Des-proof." she chuckled evilly, and Serap took this as her cue to get off of her friend, accidently landing on the table as she scrambled hastily off of Des. She mumbled an apology as she - still chibi - quickly crawled away from the action, and fell off the table, into a chair as far from the commotion as possible. Which, at the time, she didn't realize that the chair already had an occupant.

Tasuki stood up from his chair, with a scowl on his face, as he walked over next to Des, giving Kouji a slightly disbelieving look. "Kouji! I woulda tho't ya'd be smarter th'n this! In fact, I _knew_ ya'd be smarter th'n this! Wha's gotten inta ya'? Why're ya' sidin' with her? Yer girlfriend w's jus' asked a simple question, sh' didn' need ta' blow up about i'!" he stated, giving a glare to Lolinia, momentarily wondering _why the hell_ he was siding with Destiny. But, then he just ignored that thought, telling himself quite simply that it was because she was right. For once.

Destiny couldn't help but freeze in her spot, and turn to give Tasuki a look of great shock. "... We... agree... Oh Guardians, I think I'm going to shoot myself." she groaned, smacking a hand to her forehead.

Tasuki turned his scowl to her. "Oh shuddup, i's not THA' bad to have me on yer side." he snapped, to which Des just groaned again, smacking her other hand to her forehead.

"He can't even use proper English! Oh, Guardians, why did I have to get stuck with this lummox?" she cried, peeking through her fingers and glaring at Tasuki. "Would you please go sit down again, I've got it _under control_. With you here, I will _lose control_, and we'll lose. Go away. Please, just go away." she growled.

"I'm no' leavin', a'right? 'M _tryin'_ ta' get m' bes' friend ta' see th' truth - wha' th' rest of us see abou' 'Linia!" Tasuki barked, motioning angrily towards the short haired girl, who bristled, and snuggled more up against Kouji, frowning over towards the 'Wing' warrior about that comment about her.

"_Well, could you at least do it after I beat them both to a blood pulp? And do it in PROPER ENGLISH?_" Destiny snarled back, taking her hands off her face, and leaning threateningly towards Tasuki, who growled back, and took a step forward, staring her right in the face. Obviously, the previous conflict was forgotten, and they only had eyes and ears for each other. Not in a romantic way, either.

"_I'LL DO I' WHENEVER 'N' HOWEVER I WISH, DES'INY!"_ he hollered, his upper lip pulled back in a snarl, much like a wolf. Destiny hissed, sounding amazingly similar to a feline beast, as her claws emerged from her fingertips, and she drew her arms back in stance indicating she was ready to fight. Tasuki raised his hand up to grip his tessen, but before either could attack, they were interrupted.

"Boss! Boss! We caught an intruder on the mountain!" one of the bandits from before rushed in, looking as proud of himself as he had when he and his group had captured the group. Tasuki and Destiny growled at the interruption, and glared evilly at the disturbance (a.k.a. new recruit). They wanted to kill each other, _now_, and he was stalling them! How dare he.

Kouji and Lolinia turned around, and the dark blue haired bandit rolled his eyes, waving his hand as if to motion the new recruit to leave. "Bring the intruder in, then. I want to make sure they actually are _intruding_, this time." he sighed, and the younger bandit blushed, rushing out of the room to go get the intruder.

A few minutes passed - during which, Destiny had looked around to see where Serap was, and smirked when she saw the chibi red-head sitting in Chichiri's lap, but she didn't say anything (yet) - and then the group walked in, all of them struggling to keep a boy from escaping their grip. Then they all let go, dropping the boy to the floor, and rushed out of the room, closing and locking the doors behind them.

Destiny and Serap gasped in shock when the boy sat up, holding his head, and shaking it. He sat there, grumbling to himself, under his breath, before halting, and hesitantly looking up at the group at the table. He looked almost exactly like a male version of Serap, but with ever-so-slightly thinner hair, no magenta streaks, was a couple inches taller, and was dressed in all black with a cloak around him. He grinned nervously, and waved up at the table.

"Hiya, Seraph, Destiny. What're you doing here?"

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A/n: Cliffie. I guess. ((shrug)) Anyway, that's the end of this chapter. Yep. This chapter is dedicated to my thirteen-year-old dog, Blondy. He died yesterday... :'( I really miss him. Well, I better stop now, my parents are bugging me about getting off the computer. Bai-bai, minna-san, see you next chapter! 


	8. Abuse of Trust

**A/n: **... ((sneaks in, and peers around)) Eh heh, hello! Long time no see... ((wave-wave, sweatdrop)) Sorry it's been so long, but, I've gotten caught up in a lot of things. Like, driver's ed - I started it yesterday. And then there's the fact that I got a major, major writer's block on _everything_ I'm writing on...

**Disclaimer:** As usual, I don't own any of the FY characters, but I own Serap, Tyshawn, Lolinia, the evil girl, the Felinalk, some other things and characters, and I don't own Destiny, and some other characters that appear later.

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_"Hiya, Seraph, Destiny. What're you doing here?"_

There was a tense, silent pause, as Kouji, the other bandits in the room, Lolinia, Tasuki, Chichiri, Taka, Miaka, and Yui looked between the boy on the floor, Destiny, and Serap. Des looked almost disgusted, Serap's expression was a mix between disbelief, relief, and extreme shock, and the boy's just plain looked like he had just done something wrong.

"Do you three know each other?" Miaka decided to break the silence, glancing between them. Her inquiry was just enough to break the tenseness, and Serap, who was still chibi, jumped up onto the table, popped normal, leaped off the table, sprinted to the boy, and tackled him. "I... I think that answers my question!" Miaka laughed slightly.

"Is it you! It can't be you! But it has to be you, it looks like you - but you're dead, it can't be you! But you know Des and my names, so you HAVE to be you!" Serap babbled, hugging the boy tightly, lying on top of him. It was really quite an odd sight, since they looked nearly identical. "You have to be... you have to be..." she whispered, looking up into his face, furrowing her eyebrows. "Please, tell me you are who I think you are."

"I... think I'm who you think I am, if who you're thinking of is your _twin brother_, Tyshawn." the boy replied, grinning up into her face, and upon his saying that, Serap's eyes widened.

"You _are_ alive! I... I can't... believe it..." she tightened her hug, before letting go of him, sitting up, and crawling backwards off of him, forcing him to sit up as well. She examined his face critically, then his hair, then the rest of him. "Ty, I thought you were dead... Those guys, they took you and Starla..."

Ty nodded solemnly, with a shrug. "Well, Star and I thought we were gonna _be_ dead, too. But, we were able to get through it alright..."

While the two were having their reunion, the group back at the table was watching in confusion. Taka turned to Destiny, a look of pure puzzlement present on his face. Des noticed this, and turned her head to him, sighing and crossing her arms. "What is it? You want to know about these two, or something? Well, if you do, you all better listen, 'cause I'm not gonna say it twice. I'm tired of explaining things about us to you dunderheads."

The others looked between each other, before separately looking back at Destiny and nodding their heads. "Okay, we're all listening, so please continue, you know." Chichiri said, and Des nodded back, wincing slightly at his speech habit.

"Alright then. It's kind of complicated, but I'll try to explain it so you will understand. First of all, don't repeat what I'm about to tell you, or I'm afraid I'll have to sick Sheilanis and Mauricette on you-"

"Who?" Miaka interrupted, looking confused, and in response, Destiny just half-smirked, chuckling evilly, to which Miaka backed slightly away from her, hiding halfway behind Taka, wondering if it was really a good thing to know who those two were.

"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you, and, besides, you'll probably find out soon enough." She stated, before her amused gaze turned harsh. "Now, if you _don't mind_, I will get back to the story. I'll tell you the short version, so I don't go too much into detail - that's her job. Serap, her twin brother, Tyshawn, whom you see in front of you, and their younger sister Starla's parents were killed when they were young and no one would take them in. They lived in the streets until a couple of thugs came across them, and were going to take them all back to their boss, but Serap fought too much - she's five minutes older than Ty, so she kinda thought of herself as her siblings' guardian, the idiot - and they nearly killed her, so they left her and took off with her brother and sister. Naturally, everyone thought them to be dead. Obviously, we were wrong, or else Ty wouldn't be here now." Des explained, motioning toward afore mentioned 'Ty', with a disgusted look on her face, as she mumbled to herself, "I wish he'd've just stayed dead..."

The others didn't say anything for a little while, somewhat surprised that much had happened to Serap - when she was a little girl, no less. "Wow. And you say that... that isn't detailed? So, that's not all? Poor Serap..." Yui said after a while, and Miaka nodded in agreement, now hugging Taka's arm and staring at Serap and Tyshawn, sniffling slightly.

"Why does everyone I meet from other worlds have bad pasts? But... wait, do you, Destiny?" Miaka said, looking to Des, blinking her large eyes, before biting her lip, and looking away. "Oh, I'm sorry... I'm being nosy... it's none of my business." she stated, feeling quite abashed and somewhat irritated with herself for asking such a personal question. Destiny gave the Priestess a startled frown, but it was only there for a fleeting moment, and it was replaced by a smirk that related that she didn't mind.

"That's okay. I'm not gonna tell you one way or the other right now, but I might later, if I feel like it. But, Serap and my pasts are very complex and perplexing, so it's kind of hard to describe them. You understand what I mean?" Des stated, and Miaka blinked, tilting her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I... think so... yeah, I understand." she said, straightening her head, and nodding, a sweet smile planted on her face. Des shook her head slightly, rolling her eyes, before looking back over at Serap and Tyshawn, who were busily discussing everything that had happened while they were apart. Meanwhile, Chichiri was thinking about what Des had told them, watching the twins closely, and Tasuki was pondering Des' answer to Miaka's question, examining her intently, trying to be inconspicuous. Needless to say, he was failing miserably.

After a while, the twins were still deep in discussion. Miaka, Taka, and Yui had gotten bored and began to talk amongst themselves; Tasuki was still watching Destiny, Des was getting irritated at the fiery red head - and was about to blast his hair off - Chichiri was still watching Serap and Ty; Lolinia was trying to drag Kouji off to a private room; and the rest of the bandits had left, this whole situation just going right over the top of their heads.

Finally, Des lost her temper at the red head, snapping her head in his direction. "Would you please stop staring at me?" she hissed, and it actually sounded a bit like a feline hiss.

Tasuki jumped, startled when she had turned so abruptly. He didn't even realize she had noticed his staring; of course, he hadn't been being as inconspicuous as he could've, and she was very perceptive. "Uh.. um... wh' should I?" he asked, crossing his arms and glaring at her. _Yeah, tha's a _real_ good comeback, Tas._ He thought to himself sarcastically.

With an exasperated sigh, Destiny stood up from the chair had been sitting in, and walked over towards the fiery-red haired bandit. She reached him, pulled a chair out from the table, and sat down in it facing him. She stared directly into his face, with a completely serious look. "Tasuki. My.. _Friend_," she found that calling him a friend was even harder than she had previously suspected, "there are several reasons why should not stare at me."

"Oh, ye'h? Name one." he challenged, with a smirk.

She sighed, and shook her head in a pitying way. "Tsk, tsk... I credited you for at least having a peanut in that head of your's." she remarked, looking straight into his face once more. "A. Because I can whip you any time, any where. I mean, I've killed you before, in case that bit of information has slithered out of that void in your head. B. When men stare at me, it pisses me off. C. ... Well, do I even really need a C? The others explained it just fine." she stated, in an overly sweet tone.

He could tell he was in trouble; with the tone she was using, and with what she had said, it made it painfully obvious. "Oh. Righ'. Weeell, 'm 'fraid I sh'ld be goin', I jus' 'membered somethin'! Yer jus' gonna have ta whip me some oth'r time, huh?" he grinned, and jumped up, running over towards Kouji. "Kouji! Buddy, I needa talk ta ya'!" he exclaimed, grabbing Kouji's arm, and then using his speed to run through the stronghold and get to a private room where they could talk.

"Ji-ji!" Lolinia called, as her love got pulled away from her. She ran after him, her arms outstretched in front of her.

Destiny raised an eyebrow as the three ran out, and rolled her eyes, before walking over to the twin, who were still chattering away to each other. She reached them, and knelt down, resting on arm on Serap's shoulder, and one on Ty's shoulder. Both stopped talking, and looked to her in confusion. "Hello... Ty." she uttered, trying to keep herself at least a little bit pleasant.

"Hey, long time no see, Des! It's good to see you!" he grinned, an almost perverted tone to his voice. It was just enough, to make Destiny punch him in the side of the face. "OW! Hey! What was that for, exactly? All I said was that it's good to see you again!" Ty exclaimed, grabbing his swelling, bleeding cheek. Serap smacked a hand to her forehead, and muttered something quickly to herself.

"It was your _tone of voice_, dear Ty. It sounded much too suggestive." Des said, and decided that kneeling next to Ty was much too close for her comfort. She stood, and took a couple steps back. "Come on, you two, lets go eat or something. Plus, you're confusing the hell out of the others; if they're even bothering to watch and listen anymore." she stated, turning around and walking back over to the table, sitting down in her previous chair.

Serap watched Des walked away, then turned back to Ty, looking at the area that was swelling and bleeding. "Here, let me help." she said, reaching a hand out, and gently touching it. She muttered a few quick words of an unknown language, and as she did, the wound was touched by a gentle mist, that closed up the cut, and made the swelling go down. "There! Now, I have to introduce you to everyone else." she chirped, and hopped to her feet, grabbing her brother's hand, dragging him up and over towards the table.

She pushed him into a chair, and then pulled a chair out for herself, flopping into it, with a large grin spread across her face. "Okay, everyone, this is my twin brother, T-"

"Tyshawn Crescent."

"TY! I was introducing you!" Serap groaned, glaring at her twin, hoping that no one noticed the difference in their surnames. Miaka and Yui didn't notice, because they hadn't bothered to remember Serap's last name, since she didn't want to be called by her first name. But, Taka and Chichiri did notice.

"His surname is Crescent? But, I thought your's was Pottain?" Taka inquired, looking to Serap, then to Tyshawn. Ty blinked at that, and looked over to his twin sister with a questioning glance. She gave him a 'thanks-a-lot' look, and he sweatdropped, before looking over to Taka again.

"Yeah, well... our Mom's maiden name was Pottain, and our's Dad last name was Crescent, and there was this tradition like thing in our family that gave the females their Mom's surname and the males their Dad's surname. I mean, that's also how Destiny is! Her Dad's surname was Rhymeless, and her Mom's was Lorelei. But what does she go by? Destiny Lorelei!" Tyshawn explained, with a grin.

Taka, Chichiri, Miaka, and Yui were confused, but the world that the others came from was definitely strange, so it didn't really surprise them. Plus, there were some families in the Universe of the Four Gods and on Earth that did that, too; they just had never met any of them before. "Oh, I see... that makes more sense, now, y'know." Chichiri said, with a nod of his head. He thought about the other options, if that hadn't been the case; Serap could have been lying about her name, Tyshawn could have been lying about his name, Serap could have been married... _No, no, she probably wouldn't have been married, she would have mentioned something about it, y'know!_ He thought to himself, mentally shaking his head.

"Well, anyway, now that's cleared up... Ty, this is Chichiri, Taka Sukunami, Miaka Sukunami, Yui Hongo, Ta..." Serap paused in her introductions, when her gaze landed on Tasuki's empty seat. She glanced around, then over to Destiny, with a frown. "Where did Tasuki and Kouji go?" she asked, motioning at their empty seats. "They were here when Ty got here!"

"Thing 1 had to talk to thing 2. And thing 3 followed after her dear Gigi." Destiny explained, leaning back in her chair, with her arms crossed over her chest. Serap nodded her head slowly, then looked to Ty, smiling in slight embarrassment.

"There are three others, Tasuki, Kouji, and Lolinia. Tasuki's one of our teammates - remember how I told you we're here to stop that evil from our world and we teamed up with people from here? - Kouji's his best friend, and Lolinia is Kouji's girlfriend from our world, that... well... she's really annoying. That's all I'm gonna say." Serap told Ty, and he nodded his head in understanding.

"Well, I can't wait to meet them." he stated, and looked to the empty table with a scowl. "Hey, why isn't there food on the table?" He looked back up at Serap, and she raised an eyebrow at him. "... What?"

"Hehe. Nothing, I was just wondering about that abrupt change of subject. You're probably hungry, though, huh?" she asked, and Ty nodded vigorously at her, his eyes widening.

"I'm hungry, too!" Miaka added in, to which she got a simultaneous reply from Yui and Taka about how she's always hungry. She grinned sheepishly, and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. "I know. I just... have been even hungrier lately?"

"You know what? I'm hungry, too. I think we're all hungry." Des stated, and stood up, glancing around, before having her gaze land on of the bandits that lay on the floor, passed out. She walked over to him, and kicked him in the side hard enough to jerk him awake. "Do you know where the kitchen is?" she asked him, and he blinked up at her, before giving her pretty detailed directions for him being drunk. "Thank you." She then turned, and walked towards the door, to take his directions. He watched her for a moment, before grinning, and standing up, following after her.

"Uh... oh..." Serap said to herself, with a gulp, looking around at everyone else. "Methinks that bandit is going to be killed..." she said, looking back towards the door. "If that grin on his face had anything to do with his intentions."

* * *

Meanwhile, as most of this was happening, Tasuki ran to the leader's room, and tossed Kouji in, slamming the door and locking it. Kouji stumbled over to the bed, then turned around and sat down on it, looking over at his best friend in confusion, wondering why he was acting so strange. Normally when he had to speak to him, Tasuki would lead him to a room, and then he would just go into the room and they'd talk. He was _never_ dragged to the room, tossed in, and locked in.

"Okay, Genrou, wha's wrong?" he asked, as Tasuki glanced around, and then pointed towards the open window. He ran over to it, and slammed it closed, looking around once more for any ways for someone to hear inside the room. Kouji was becoming nervous by the way his best friend was acting, and reached up, scratching the back of his head. "Um.. Gen, wha's goin' on?"

"Oh, nuttin', Kouji!" Tasuki clarified, pulling a chair up in front of blue older bandit, and sitting down on it, giving him a serious look. "Okay, now, onta business. I saw th' look yeh had on yer face when th' 'Linia girl kep' drapin' herself all ov'r ya'. Ya' don' really like 'er, do ya'?" he asked, and Kouji jerked backwards a little, a startled expression spreading over his features.

"Wha'... no, 'f course I like 'er! Sh's my girlfrien', why wouldn' I like 'er?" he exclaimed, and Tasuki quickly clamped his hand over Kouji's mouth, shushing him.

"Dun' be so loud! Sh' followed us!" he hissed, glanced towards the door. "Which's why I took us ta' THIS room, 'f course! I's th' closes' thin' to soun'proof the stronghold has." He glanced towards the door once more, then took his hand off of Kouji's mouth, motioning for him to be quieter this time.

"... Why shouldn' I like Lola?" Kouji asked, crossing his arms and glaring at Tasuki. The red head didn't answer, but just continued to give Kouji a blank look. After a moment, the blue haired bandit sighed, and hung his head slightly. "Was I really tha' obvious?"

"Well, ta' me ya' were, bu' I have known ya' for years, an' yer my bes' friend. I dun' thin' anyone else noticed." Tasuki stated, with a frown, and reached forward, grabbing his best friend by the shoulders, shaking him slightly. "Bu' why are ya' goin' out wit' someone you dun' even like! 'Specially when sh's an annoyin' li'l... GAH. Too annoyin' for words!"

"Sh's threat'nin' me." Kouji said, grabbing Tasuki's arms, and glaring right back into his best friend's widening eyes.

"A... wom'n's threat'nin' ya'? Buddy! Wha's wrong wit' ya'? Ya' shou' jus' kick 'er out! Or, better yet, I will!" Tasuki exclaimed, and tried to pull away, but Kouji held onto his arms tightly, not letting him get away.

"Don' do it, Genrou. Sh's vicious. An' she has frien's that are jus' as vicious. If I try ta' kick her out, or tell anyone... sh's gonna sick 'em on me. An' I've met 'em. They gave me a demonstration." he whispered, almost fearfully. Tasuki looked down at his best friend in shock, and sat back down.

"Kouji.. Why didn' ya' tell me abou' this sooner?" he asked, and his friend just shook his head, giving him an exasperated look.

"I tol' you arready. Sh's vicious, and her FRIEN'S are vicious."

"We've gotta get rid of her..."

As he said that, he heard the door slam open. The two bandits jumped, and looked around quickly, to see the one they had just been speaking of, standing in the doorway, her arms crossed, and a sugary sweet smile on her face. "I hear you've been talking about me and my friends,_ Ji-ji_. I thought I told you it was _impolite_ to talk about people behind their backs?" she snapped, her voice losing it's normal sweetness, as she walked in, closing the door behind her gently.

"... Uh oh."


End file.
